The Daughter of Telcontar
by Blue Eyes At Night
Summary: Arwen became mortal to become Aragorn's wife and because of this all of their children were mortal...except for one daughter. Slightly AU. COMPLETE! additional note as of December 30, 2008
1. introduction

A/N- Ok, this is the manuscript that once was lost but now is found. I do NOT own any of the LOTR things, but my friend and I own my Leyadriel and her sisters as well as her horse, her clothes, her jewelry and the rose bush.  
  
Chapter 1- Introductions  
  
After the marriage of Aragorn son of Arathorn to Arwen Evenstar of the Elves, those close to them eagerly awaited the birth of their first child. Before the year was out Arwen announced that she was carrying, and all knowing as the elvish people are, announced the birth of a son. He came early but was still healthy and vibrant. A proud father named him Eldarion Telcontar.  
  
When Eldarion was two, Arwen was expecting again. By the time he was three, he had an infant sister. This time it was the proud mother who named her daughter, Leyadriel Telcontar. The little princess was beautiful and was eagerly shown off to Elves known to the King and Queen.  
  
Legolas Greenleaf saw the child and was noted as saying, when she was barely a year old, "Such beauty the world has never seen nor shall ever see again. She is unsurpassable."  
  
However, when the third child was born strange things began to happen to Princess Leyadriel...  
  
Her parents had expected a better reaction from their very elvish daughter then their born-to-be-a-Ranger son when they told them about the next child. She took the news wonderfully, impatient to have a little sister. Leyadriel was young but even so helped her mother make clothes and blankets for the unborn princess. But late at night, while her parents and siblings all slept, Leyadriel dreamed. At first, she dreamed and shadows would flicker at the edge of her young perception. But one night, the shadows were all she could see and they frightened her greatly.  
  
She, shaking with fear, padded silently to her parents' room. Her mother's belly was swollen slightly and this made Leyadriel smile at her sister. Noiselessly, she walked to the side of her parents' bed, with her elvish ears she could hear three steady heartbeats and her own still racing from her nightmare. Though she saw no faces, the fear that gripped her heart would only be lessened by her mother and father.  
  
"Adar, atar?" {Father, mother?} She whispered.  
  
Her parents slept on. Leyadriel shock her mother's arm lightly and whispered her name again, Arwen's open eyes slowly focused but in seeing her daughter she snapped awake and furrowed her brows in concern.  
  
"Leyadriel?" She asked but before she could continue, Aragorn rolled over sharply in concern and asked, "Mani naa ta?" {What is it?} Leyadriel was suddenly very self-conscious about her dream but she wanted to be near her parents. "I had a nightmare. May I sleep here?"  
  
A relieved smile broke out on her mother's face and she lifted Leyadriel into their bed and tucked her between herself and Aragorn. Her father cuddled in closer to her and her mother.  
  
"What dream scared you, little one?" He asked, thankful for small problems to solve now after a lifetime of complications.  
  
"I couldn't see, they were all shadows." She answered as she snuggled contentedly into her mother and the bulge that was her sister.  
  
"They're gone now." Her mother assured her, stroking her soft hair.  
  
"I know." She smiled and fell asleep and fell asleep. But they weren't gone, they would never be gone.  
  
A/N- what do you guys think? Do you like it? My friend (who co-owns Leyadriel) illustrates her so I'll try and get a website with the pics to you guys. 


	2. the dreams

A/N- *Disclaimer* I don't own LOTR. It isn't mine. I admit that. But what is mine isn't yours, so hands off. Here's Chapter 2.  
  
Chapter 2- The Dreams  
  
Every few nights, Leyadriel would sneak into her parents' room, stained by a nightmare. Eventually, she stopped waking them and just wedged herself between her father, her mother and her unborn sister. One morning when she woke up she heard them talking.  
  
"Why is she doing this?" Aragorn asked concerned, "What's wrong? She never used to have nightmares."  
  
"Elves aren't known for bad dreams, but she's only part elf. Maybe its her human side." Arwen suggested, smoothing her belly.  
  
"I don't see one shred of humanity in her. Never have. She's always shown an all elvish side. She even sleeps elvish!"  
  
Arwen sighed and responded, "I know. She is the elvish child. I just don't know why this is happening, Estel." {Means "Hope" its Aragorn's name in Imladris which is Rivendell}  
  
Aragorn hesitated before saying, "Could it be because of her sister?"  
  
Arwen's eyebrows narrowed protectively, "What do you mean?"  
  
"Could she be jealous? Could she want attention that's going to her sister? Eldarion did the same things when she was born." He spoke carefully, knowing he was treading on dangerous ground. Eldarion was very human, very much like Aragorn and was his father's pride and joy. Leyadriel was like her mother, very elvish and incredibly beautiful, Arwen's pride and joy. He had not taken well to Arwen telling him Eldarion was jealous, she wouldn't take well to having the same accusation made of Leyadriel.  
  
"She's not lying about these nightmares. I would know if she were lying." Arwen argued confidently.  
  
"All I'm saying," Aragorn tried not to offend his pregnant (and therefore moody) wife, "is that there has to be some reason for her to have such horrible dreams every night when she never had a nightmare before."  
  
The Queen sighed, one arm resting on the bulge of her stomach and the other pressing against her temple. "There's nothing wrong with Leyadriel."  
  
The argument ended there and, afterwards, Leyadriel didn't go to her parents' no matter how frightened her dreams made her. Half the time she was crying into her pillow trying to fend off the dreams. The other half she was huddled in a fetal position on her windowsill, wanting dawn to come. She never knew that her brother heard her crying and told her parents about it.  
  
A/N- awww, he's a nice big brother. I feel bad for Le, she's forever walking in on convo's that are about her...not that that's a hint towards the future. Please review. *puppy face* 


	3. family & injury

Disclaimer**I don't own LOTR* its not mine  
  
Chapter 3- Revelations  
  
"Grandfather!" Leyadriel exclaimed as she leapt happily into Elrond's arms. He kissed the top of her head fondly and cupped her cherub cheek in his hand, "Little Leyadriel." He cooed.  
  
Eldarion ran into his arms a moment later, taking up space that had been Leyadriel's. Leyadriel looked past Elrond to see someone else she could embrace.  
  
"Galadriel!!" She exclaimed happily and sprinted into her great- grandmother's grasp. She heard her brother exclaim Celeborn's name before doing a similar vault to embrace.  
  
Galadriel had been a partial inspiration for Leyadriel's name; the two had similar hearts and minds. Their embrace was long, tender, and made palpable the love they shared for each other.  
  
"My little Leyadriel," Galadriel spoke in a loving whisper, "how you've blossomed. It has been too long since we saw each other, little love."  
  
"I've missed you." Galadriel had come to see Arwen 8 months earlier when the third pregnancy was announced but they hadn't had much time for intimate talk. Little did Leyadriel know, this visit was because of her.  
  
After the children were put to bed that night, the adults gathered for a talk. Galadriel looked very concerned to start and began the discussion officially. "Tell us everything about Leyadriel's circumstance."  
  
Arwen said protectively, "She is plagued by nightmares. She used to come to Aragorn and myself after them, every night but one day she abruptly stopped and stayed in her own room. We thought the dreams had abruptly ended but Eldarion hears her crying every night."  
  
Aragorn continued, "She can't remember what the evils look like. She claims they're just shadows. At first, I thought she might be doing this for attention but now it does not seem so."  
  
"It never seemed so." Arwen breathed quietly.  
  
Aragorn ignored the interruption but it hit his heart, "We are still relatively new parents and ask for your advice on what to do."  
  
With this a silence fell as the three older elves went deep into thought. Galadriel stared fixedly at the floor, looking pale, and then slowly closed her eyes. Celeborn was highly attuned to his wife's presence and when she flinched, he grasped her hand in his. Elrond watched them from the corner of his eye but seemed lost in his own thoughts.  
  
After a moment, Galadriel's eyes flung open and she took in a breath sharply. A look of fear and worry crossed her face and she quickly rose from the chair whispering hurriedly, "Leyadriel." Aragorn needed nothing more then Galadriel's speed towards the children's upstairs rooms, then to vault up the stairs two at a time. Even with this, Galadriel's elvish speed beat him to her door but then put a finger to her lips, calling for silence. All obeyed her and were silent as death as the door was opened. The sight that met them gripped their hearts. Leyadriel, who usually slept with her eyes open, had them shut so tightly it looked as though it pained her. Tears streamed down her cheeks and sweat plastered her hair to her head. Her breathing was short and ragged. Leyadriel's small hands were clenched into tight fists that turned her knuckles white and left deep bruises and nail marks in her palms. She was sharply turning from left to right then kicked her covers off and curled into a fetal position on her side.  
  
Suddenly, she began to whimper then a hair-raising scream came from her lips. Arwen made to wake her but was stopped by Elrond who said, "You mustn't disturb her." In reply to the enraged look Arwen gave him.  
  
More painful screams came from the child and then gashes appeared on her. One of the ugliest went from the corner of her left eye to her left collarbone and there was another ugly one on her left wrist. It was as though a sword had just swiped down on her and she was trying to turn away from it, unsuccessfully. The gashes were deep and bleeding heavily for nearly five minutes before Leyadriel convulsed one last time then woke with a start.  
  
She looked at her relatives, then to the door where Eldarion had been watching full of fear since she screamed. Leyadriel was white with fright and after a second of silence, fainted.  
  
A/N- Poor baby. I feel like she's my baby and I hate writing these scenes because she's so hurt. ( *tear* Tell me what you think. Press the little review button. 


	4. hard facts of life

A/N- I feel so unloved, no one reviews = (  
  
Chapter 4- The Hard Facts of Life  
  
Arwen was still in a deep state of shock as she cleaned her daughter's wounds and wrapped them. One of her arms was still shaking.  
  
As she found finished tending Leyadriel's injuries, her shaking overcame her and she had no choice but to allow Aragorn to wrap his arms around her, holding her closely.  
  
"What...." She stuttered, "How?"  
  
Galadriel leaned forward and smoothed the hair on her great-granddaughter's head before turning to her granddaughter. "The shadows did this to her."  
  
"Why?" Aragorn asked sharply, "What shadows?"  
  
"The shadows," Galadriel sighed and met his eyes, "are the dead. Orcs mostly, a few other of the Dark Lord's slaves. They know you defeated them and they attack her to harm you."  
  
"But how could they get to her?" Arwen demanded fiercely, "Their dead."  
  
Galadriel sat on the edge of Leyadriel's bed and stroked her soft face, looking to Celeborn to say what she did not want to.  
  
Celeborn cleared his throat and put his hands on his wife's shoulder, then he said, "It is because you journeyed the Paths of the Dead, Aragorn."  
  
The King went wide-eyed with horror and shock, and then guilt set in as he gazed at his child who was wrapped in bloodied bandages.  
  
"How could that have hurt her?" He asked in a quiet voice.  
  
Elrond stepped forth and let Celeborn and Galadriel rest from their explanations.  
  
"In traveling the Paths you allowed the Dead to stain you. Now, the world of the Dead, those that you yourself destroyed, have found you. But where your connection to them was weak, being a mortal, they could do nothing to you. This connection you had was passed down to your children. Your son remained unharmed because he, like you, was human with not enough elvish blood to make a difference to the connection between this world and that of the Dead. But your daughter," he glanced tenderly at Leyadriel, "has so much potent elvish blood that the connection was beyond strong enough for them to enter and harm her. They want revenge on you through your daughter."  
  
Aragorn flinched and squeezed his eyes shut; Arwen put her head against his cheek and let silent tears fall.  
  
Tonight, they had heard their daughter scream out in pain, the pain of being tortured and plagued by creatures with no hearts, no souls and no thoughts except her pain. Tonight, the pain they had ignored had hurt and scarred their beautiful child. And the reason she had suffered was because her mother had been an elf and her father had been a human marred by the Dead. 


	5. acceptance

***Disclaimer*** I do not own Lord of the Rings. It's not mine, wish it was but its not. Please PLEASE review, I feel very hated and despised by all the readers when there are no new reviews in my mailbox = (  
  
'.....' Thoughts  
Chapter 5- Acceptance  
  
Leyadriel's mother and great-grandmother never left her bedside until she woke near noon. Sleepily she opened her eyes and saw them, immediately smiling and saying happily, "Atara! Galadriel!" {Mommy!}  
  
Both looked weary and concerned but smiled through it at the child. However they couldn't completely mask their feelings from a child so completely elvish.  
  
"Mani naa ta?" {What is it?}She asked with a child's innocence.  
  
Her mother gave her a look that was debating what to say and stroked Leyadriel's hand. Arwen looked to Galadriel and the elder elf nodded, Leyadriel was confused until she was handed a small hand mirror.  
  
The she-elves had expected the child to be distressed at the wounds she'd sustained but she merely sighed sadly and muttered, "They said it would get worse."  
  
It was the she-elves who wound up being distressed, well Arwen more so then Galadriel.  
  
"Who said that?" Arwen demanded. Her daughter was tentatively touching the bandage on her face. "Leyadriel!" Arwen caught her attention and asked again, "Who said such a thing to you?"  
  
Quietly the child answered her, "The shadows in the dreams."  
  
Arwen looked questioningly at her grandmother silently begging for help. Leyadriel didn't notice her mother's desperation and instead asked. "Galadriel, what are they called? The shadows?"  
  
Galadriel looked sorrowfully at the child but answered, "Yrch." {Orcs}  
  
Leyadriel shivered noticeably with fright. "They're yucky. Their mean too."  
  
"Yes darling, they are." Her mother barely breathed a response as utter hatred welled inside her for the creatures that hurt her child.  
  
*** 2 Months Later***  
  
For every night since the dreams first drew blood, they continued to cut and torture the young princess. Her mother kept fretting over her and she managed to prevent all but the first marks from scarring. Arwen tried to no avail to stop the scars from marring her daughter's great beauty, but the girl would always have those two marks.  
  
As the time for the birth of Arwen's third child drew near, Galadriel tended the princess and used her power to lessen the child's pain.  
  
One night, Leyadriel had moaned and cried silently, receiving a small series of shallow cuts on her palms and forearms. Galadriel lovingly cleaned the small cuts but didn't bind them because of their insignificant size. Then she fondly stroked Leyadriel's cheek. The slash there hadn't harmed her great- granddaughter's eyesight.  
  
'Nor did it mar her beauty.' Galadriel thought proudly, 'The few members of the Fellowship near Gondor shall be here soon for the third birth. We shall see if Legolas still praises her beauty.'  
  
The scars had turned to a pale white against her pearl toned skin, enough to not be screaming for recognition but enough to be seen nonetheless. 'For one who would be pampered it would be a poor thing but for one who has a Ranger's blood in her veins, it won't even be remembered.'  
  
Galadriel's eye twinkled and in her sleep Leyadriel smiled.  
  
***3 Months Later***  
  
**3rd child has been born, another daughter named Elaren; friends/family of child coming to see her at official party**  
  
Arwen held her crying newborn and cooed to try and calm her. In less then an hour a party would begin in honor of Princess Elaren Telcontar and her mother wanted her to have some quietness at the event. Elaren, however, planned to cry as she had been crying all morning.  
  
A knock came to the door, barely audible over the infant's screams.  
  
"Come in!" Arwen nearly yelled to be heard.  
  
Leyadriel came in and walked over to her mother who was now sitting and softly bouncing the infant she held. Her elder daughter was looking lovingly and irritatingly at her baby sister.  
  
"She's so cute," Leyadriel said, "but I'm surprised she hasn't hurt her own ears with all her crying."  
  
With gentle fingers, Leyadriel tucked her sister's silky hair behind her small ear, a rounded human ear. In seeing Elaren's ears a confused expression came to Leyadriel's face and she reached up to touch her own ears, which were pointed like her mother's.  
  
"Atar? Will her ears get pointy ve'amin?" {Mother?...........like me?} She asked.  
  
Arwen tenderly touched her daughter's elvish ears and she said sadly, "N'uma, coramin. {No, my heart.} Her blood has too much of adarlle {your father} in it. Her ears will be ve'Eldarion." {Like Eldarion}  
  
Leyadriel looked disappointed. But then she reached out a hand to tickle her sister's chin and succeeded in making them both laugh. Arwen soon joined in the merry scene. As the laughter slowed and ceased, leaving all with a smile, Aragorn and Eldarion came to the door.  
  
"May the men encroach on the women's delight?"  
  
"Uma." {Yes.} Arwen responded.  
  
The father and son came in and smiled at the women. "We came when Elaren ceased to cry."  
  
Eldarion nodded at his father's comment and walked over to his infant sister. His parents smiled affectionately as the baby grabbed one of her brother's fingers and held onto them. The whole family was sent into peels of laughter when Elaren tried to suck Eldarion's fingers, forcing him to make a disgusted, appalled face. When the laughter died down Leyadriel cocked her head oddly to one side and then burst into laughter again and her brother, mother, and father looked at her questioningly.  
  
"Mani naa ta?" {What is it?} Aragorn asked.  
  
"Gimli and Legolas are here." Leyadriel could barely manage amidst her laughter.  
  
"What are they saying to make you laugh so?" Aragorn asked as Arwen, with her elven ears, burst into laughter as well.  
  
"They are having a famous argument about elves and dwarves again. Bringing up terribly humorous memories." Arwen managed to answer as she and Leyadriel ceased laughing quite so hard. Aragorn smirked and rolled his eyes at the memories that flashed through his mind of the elf and dwarf.  
  
"Some of those memories and comments perhaps should not be heard by our young and impressionable daughter." He whispered to his wife but not quietly enough, for Leyadriel heard.  
  
"They're funny but they're not bad." She defended.  
  
Aragorn rolled his eyes as the sounds of the argument met his ears. With a mischievous smile Leyadriel crept out of the room. Her parents and siblings went over to the window and watched as she stalked up behind the two companions.  
  
The elf may have heard her but she wasn't planning on ambushing him, so he kept his mouth shut. Then she leapt on the dwarf while he was mid-sentence and they tumbled down to the grass. Legolas laughed heartily as Gimli struggled against the elf child playfully wrestling him.  
  
"Legolas! Help!" He said playfully. Legolas came up behind the child and wrapped an arm around her and, pulling her off Gimli, swung her in a circle. She giggled hysterically as he wrapped the other arm around her and tightly embraced her, the child of one of his dearest friends.  
  
"Mae govannen, pen vanima. {Well met, little beauty} It has been long since I've seen you. How are you?" He greeted her fondly.  
  
"Amin tereva." {I'm fine.} She answered as her family walked down the paths to the trio.  
  
"Hail Aragorn!" Gimli called with a smile.  
  
"Hail Gimli!" The king returned as they all bowed before each other formally before embracing each other as though they were family and not merely good friends.  
  
Arwen embraced the two guests and kissed each of their cheeks, warmly welcoming them to her home. Legolas' keen eyes swept over the family asking, "And where, pray tell, is the newest child we were warned to welcome?"  
  
Aragorn scolded him, "Now you're not supposed to see her until the ceremony and you can't tell me fifteen minutes is that long to wait, Taren?" {Prince}  
  
"True, true." Legolas replied amidst the groups' laughter.  
  
A/N- I gave you a very long Chapter..as a reward may I please have a review? 


	6. Leyadriel's beauty

*Disclaimer-LOTR isn't mine (big surprise there) But I DO own Le and here sisters and the Rose Bush! * **Be proud of me, this is my third chapter today! **  
  
Chapter 6- Leyadriel's Beauty  
  
**Takes place after the ceremony for Elaren as the sun is setting**  
  
Leyadriel had snuck out of the party so subtly, that almost no one noticed. Only one looking for her would notice absence. However, one was looking for her, had been searching for her with his eyes. Curious to know where the young princess had gone he had wandered the gardens knowing that any elf child would be outside watching the sunset.  
  
He found her on a bench by a white rose bush, looking thoughtfully at the scene of oranges and purples painted in the sky. He was loathe to disturb the peace of the child but was invited to.  
  
"Ta vanima." {It's beautiful.} She said, her eyes fixed on the setting sun.  
  
"Uma." He replied to her, "Lle naa vanima ve mae." {Yes. You are beautiful as well.}  
  
She blushed and laughed solemnly at his words. Leyadriel put a small dove- colored hand over her face, lightly touching the scar there. Legolas hadn't seen it before and looked surprised to see it. She said softly, "U- vanima si." {Not beautiful now}  
  
He caressed her scarred cheek lightly with his fingertips and then wrapped his arm around her, pulling her closer to him in a soothing way, "Lle naa vanima." {You are beautiful.}  
  
"I'm marred." She pointed out.  
  
"You're much too young to be marred, pen mir. {Little jewel} Your beauty will only shine brighter now." He told her and she smiled in embarrassment and contentment. Leyadriel and Legolas had been close since she was born and he proclaimed her, "The most beautiful child alive" which always made her laugh. She trusted him, knew she was safe near him and the tired child laid her head against his chest and faded into a delightful sleep. A half an hour later, her parents discovered her and swept her off to her rooms, ready for a nightmare to come to her. But Legolas knew nothing of nightmares.  
  
The young child's scar had greatly disturbed him. He knew it was no accident from play but an intentional attack against the princess.  
  
When her mother was tucking her under her covers, Legolas pulled Aragorn aside and whispered with a voice full of concern, "Mani marte le-iel?" {What happened to thee's daughter?}  
  
"What do you mean?" Aragorn asked but he thought he knew what his friend meant.  
  
"Her face, what gave her that scar?" Legolas heard Aragorn sigh brokenheartedly and looked down from his friend's gaze.  
  
Aragorn looked in at the form of his sleeping daughter, someone needed to watch her. Arwen came noiselessly up behind him carrying Elaren, "I'll watch her if you put Elaren to bed."  
  
A fair deal, Aragorn took his infant daughter in his arms and walked down the slight hall to his room, where the baby was sleeping for now, with Legolas in tow. He set the small sleeping princess down and folded her under a blanket, kissed her head and walked out to the gardens with a patient Legolas waiting for an answer.  
  
"She's cursed," He said, admitting it with pain, "and I blame myself."  
  
"Why?" Legolas questioned, still confused.  
  
"The Paths of the Dead." Aragorn spat out the phrase with disgust, "They have stained my blood but couldn't hurt me because I'm mortal. When I passed my blood to my children, I passed this to them as well. If they favor their human side, nothing will happen. If they favor their elvish side, it will haunt them, hurt them, and plague them. Leyadriel was attacked in her sleep, through her dreams, because I traveled the paths and Arwen was elvish."  
  
"Ya?" The elf needed clarification, "Who hurts her?" {Who?}  
  
"The dead." Aragorn's answer was barely a whisper, his voice held so much grief, so much guilt, and an abysmal amount of helplessness. Legolas' heart broke at his friend's tone but was still slightly perplexed.  
  
"But the Path's dead were indebted to you, now they rest." The elf didn't understand why Aragorn's ghostly servants would wish to harm his daughter.  
  
"The Path opened my blood to the dead. The dead that plague her are those I killed, the Fellowship killed. She says many of them are orcs."  
  
Legolas visibly flinched. It was beyond a cruel fate for a child to sleep at night only to dream of orcs who wanted her to suffer.  
  
A scream pierced the elf prince's ears. Aragorn couldn't have heard it but he sensed it. He ran full speed into the palace. Legolas was bidden to remain away from Leyadriel's rooms by countless servants. She kept screaming and he could not bear her pain filled tears and he closed his eyes and cursed Elbereth for letting such a sweet, innocent child, such a radiant child, suffer so greatly.  
  
A/N- I get all teary eyed writing this, I feel like Le's my daughter...please review, its that little button on the bottom left-hand corner. 


	7. cruelty and kindness

***Disclaimer*** I don't own LOTR but I think you guys knew that.  
  
I must thank EVERYONE for reviewing; no one has any idea how happy I was when I had twelve new reviews in one day. I'm also so happy that you guys like Le (My little girl has fans). I think that we will soon have a site up that has her pics on it, hope for the best pics are harder to upload then stories.  
  
I realize that there are a couple loose ends about the dreams and why Le has them because she's elvish and will she get to choose, and I think the next chapter or two is going to answer them but if not I will be happy to add it in.  
  
Thanks soooooo much for reviewing, I really do appreciate it.  
  
A/N- The elvish sentences sometimes combine Quenya with Sindarin and other words are used in both so if it gets confusing with seeing a Sindarin subject with a Quenya predicate, I'm sorry it's just all I have at my disposal.  
  
BTW- I am a total spaz when it comes to typing so the spelling errors are fixed by the little button on my comp and then I read it over and my mind just tells me to read the typed word as the word it was supposed to be....in short I'm a lousy proofreader and I apologize. I'll try harder.  
  
On with the story!!  
  
Chapter 7- Cruelty and Kindness  
  
**Leyadriel's Birthday**  
  
**She's turning 8**  
  
"Dina." {Silence.} She whispered into the ear of her filly, "Saes mellonamin, dina. {Please my friend, silence.} I want to keep this adventure to just you and I."  
  
She was whispering to her favorite birthday present. Well, she had two favorites, but she really loved this one. Then again she really loved her other gift too. She sighed and thought, 'One day I'll love one of them more.'  
  
***Earlier that day, gift giving to Leyadriel***  
  
"Here, darling." Her mother said, cradling another infant daughter to her chest and handing Leyadriel a box with intricate elvish carvings. The box was lightweight and the young child carried it easily back to her seat in a circle of marvelous gifts, some she liked, some she loved, and all she had sincerely thanked the giver for.  
  
Upon opening the box, she saw a silver crown and an elaborate and beautiful necklace with a jewel in the shape of a mallorn blossom with a small mallorn leaf on either side. A tear fell down her cheek as she read the note enclosed:  
  
Dearest Leyadriel,  
  
Since the day you were born, I have felt a special affection for you that I have long since felt. Not since my own daughter was your age. I wish I could be with you now, wish I could never leave your side but that is not how things are meant to be so I present something to you. I give this to you my heir, my blood, my life and with all my love.  
  
Amin mela lle ten'oio- {I love you forever.}  
  
Galadriel  
  
"She's sailed." Leyadriel whispered. Her love for her great-grandmother was greater then ever before. The gift was beautiful but she knew that now she would not see her Galadriel again, unless of course she sailed as well. Still, Galadriel had just openly declared her as her heir and, though the title would only last as long as the elves, she still was touched by the action.  
  
She was happy and sad so her parents, hoping to sway for the happy, gave her the next present. Her father pressed a blindfold to her eyes and led her through all the twists and turns the palace could possibly have before she felt the grass beneath her feet and knew the sky was over her head. Then the blindfold was removed and she squealed a loud merrily when she saw the filly in front of her.  
  
It was beautiful; a pure white body with a pitch black mane and tail with glittering auburn eyes. She named the beauty Du-amrun. Du meaning night, amrun meaning morning or day; she dubbed her horse "Night and Day". She was enamored with it, it seemed to read her mind and was gentle but best of all- ---- it was swift.  
  
Leyadriel had wanted to ride her then and there donning her party dress and all but her parents forbid her from dirtying the new frock. The day was full of wonderful treasures and trinkets; Gimli had sent her a small box of jewel from the Glittering Caves and Legolas had sent her a bouquet of elvish white roses that would never fade.  
  
Children of family friends were now gathering around her begging the princess to play with them. She voted to play her favorite game; Hide-And- Seek. With a clap of her hands, her younger sister became it and the rest of the kids were off and hiding. As Leyadriel padded around silently on her elvish feet she overheard a conversation between her mother and father.  
  
"Re dona ilya en'he gwaith, vernamin, vanima. Mani ner urite." {She is like all of her kind, my wife, beautiful. What's more fiery.} Aragorn said.  
  
Arwen sighed, "I would never say she is ugly or weak but she is gravely affected by this....this...handicap. I fear she won't be strong enough to defeat it. If defeating it at all is possible."  
  
"We can help her." Aragorn suggested.  
  
"We have five other children." Arwen pointed out, "Eldarion and five daughters younger then our elfling. There are two of us. At sometimes we can't be there for one. Besides, as mortals are prone to do, we shall die Estel. If we become her crutch of strength and perish she would perish as well. Would you do that to *our* daughter?"  
  
"We-we-"Aragorn stuttered, "we are her *parents* Arwen. We must help her."  
  
"I don't think you realize that we can't! It's in her *mind* Aragorn! If we're not careful with our interference Aragorn, we could make it worse. And who's to say the younger ones won't suddenly decide to claim nightmares for the doting Leyadriel receives? What if the others begin to imitate her condition for attention? Wounds and all?"  
  
Leyadriel's heart fell upon hearing her mother's words; at which point her younger sister taped on her shoulder triumphantly saying, "I found you! I found you!"  
  
Numbly, she followed her sister and commanded eager children to play again, Leyadriel even volunteered to be the seeker. Of course, as soon as everyone was hidden and she was along her heart truly ached at her mother's words. Then she overheard some children hiding nearby snicker, "For an elf she's not pretty. Stupid scar on her face, scary to look at. I probably wouldn't be near her with that scar if she were normal."  
  
"It scares me too but she's an elf princess. Mommy says it's good to make friends in high places."  
  
These words numbed her more and she fled from the palace to the stables, quietly led her horse to her favorite garden, and galloped through it. She hoped the ride, done in elvish fashion, would take away the deadening feeling, but it only succeeded in making her heart hurt more then before.  
  
**Same time but from a different perspective**  
  
Legolas had planned on staying near Gimli while in Gondor then coming to see Aragorn and his family, but a fight with Gimli had allowed him to come early to the House of Telcontar. As he arrived, he saw enough to alarm him slightly. He saw the young Leyadriel riding a young horse at full speed through one of the gardens.  
  
"Noro lim." {Ride on} he whispered to Arod and the horse set off towards the princess' steed. The horses' footfalls were as silent as his master's and the princess never heard her friend approach.  
  
"Tarienamin." {My princess.} He whispered to himself, pondering her swiftness, "What could have been done to cause this?"  
  
Eventually the child stopped riding and knelt by a white rose bush in tears. Legolas padded up behind her and watched her in confusion, wondering what had happened to make her cry.  
  
He gently wiped a tear from her cheek with his fingertip and whispered gently, "Mani marte, pen mir? Why do you cry?" {What's wrong, little jewel?}  
  
She turned to face him, her eyes flooded with tears and her bottom lip was trembling. Her raven hair fell in her face and obstructed his view of her. Gently, he brushed her locks away from her face and lifted her chin so her eyes were even with his. The prince saw a vast amount of pain for such a young child and it broke his heart.  
  
Leyadriel choked out a sob before throwing her arms around his neck, burying her head in his shoulder and crying Legolas held the small form to him and swore that he would end her pain...no matter what the price.  
  
For a half hour she cried and he held her, waiting for her to tell him what ailed her spirit. Finally, her sobs quieted and her ragged breathes slowed and evened. Leyadriel lifted her head from his shoulder but kept her gaze downcast.  
  
"I heard people talking at my party, the things they said were *not* nice."  
  
"What did they say? Who said it?" Who-so-ever had spoken of the princess would feel the anger of her fellow elf.  
  
"I heard some of the children say they were only there because I was a princess, and an elf. That I wasn't pretty and my scar scared them."  
  
"Children can be cruel, Leyadriel." He cooed, trying desperately to make her hurt vanish.  
  
"Then two adults were talking and they said they weren't sure if I was strong enough...I think they think that I won't live. They said I was a handful. That it's too hard to worry about me with all my sisters and my brother. I remember before they thought I was pretending to have nightmares for attention. I don't think they care about me other then disappointment and guilt."  
  
"Who? Ya?" {Who?} Legolas didn't trust himself to say more then two words due to his barely checked anger at the anonymous people who had said such things, such cruel and untrue things.  
  
"Atar a adaramin." {My mother and father} She couldn't look at him in the eye as she said this, she knew that Legolas had been friends with her father for over a decade and had been friends with her mother for thousands of years and the shock of her words would be a horrible ordeal for him.  
  
Heavy footfalls of guards came through the garden, calling for the princess. She scampered off to be found, leaving Legolas to his thoughts.  
  
**A few hours later**  
  
Aragorn knew his daughter was upset when he put her sleep and stayed by her side most of the night. When Arwen came to relieve him, a nursing babe in one arm and the other smoothing Leyadriel's brow, he went right out to the gardens. He was feeling like he'd never sleep again.  
  
He felt guilty when he slept and his dreams left him unscathed, having nothing better to do, was about to dwell on them, when something better to do came along.  
  
"Shouldn't you be sleeping?" A voice questioned.  
  
"You know I was never one for a lot of sleep, Legolas." The King of Men answered wearily.  
  
"You look tired." The elf pointed out.  
  
"I can't sleep without guilt." Aragorn admitted, staring at the stars.  
  
"Why not?"  
  
"Leyadriel." Aragorn answered with a sigh. "I can't sleep through the night in peace and not feel a wave of guilt that she suffers."  
  
Legolas had a hard cold look on his face but his eyes had softened a little at Aragorn's words. "She doesn't seem to be as aware of your concerns as she is with your words."  
  
"Elbereth." Aragorn whispered, closing his eyes in evident self-hatred and anger, "What did she hear?"  
  
"I found her crying in the gardens today. Why don't you tell me what she heard?" The elf's tone made it obvious he wanted to hear every syllable.  
  
"Arwen and I were having a disagreement about whether or not we should let Leyadriel lean heavily on us for support regarding her," he paused searching for the words he wished to use, "handicap."  
  
Legolas' face tinged red in anger when he heard Aragorn's summary.  
  
"Perhaps, Estel, you should allow your daughter to choose, not choose for her, else you upset her more." Legolas' words were monotone and serious as Aragorn had never seen him before, "And recall that she is cursed, not handicapped, because that title of something like a cripple ails her as well."  
  
Aragorn was ashamed of his words and actions and looked toward Leyadriel's bedroom window and sighed, "I can't help but feel that it's my fault that she suffers."  
  
Legolas let this slight shift in subjects go, Aragorn was fidgeting slightly like a youth and the elf realized that he was just a child trapped in the body of a grown man. Still, the prince refused to soften his plea and was determined that Estel take a lesson away from this conversation.  
  
"It's not your fault that she was born this way, friend, but it is your fault if she doesn't live a happy life despite it." With that Legolas left his friend to mull over the word exchange.  
  
Legolas went to the garden he had found Leyadriel in and cooled off his temper. But still his mind was screaming at Aragorn, all the words he wished to say in rage were yelled in his head.  
  
'How could you *ever* speak of her as though you could dictate her life or her choices! How dare you not realize what a vulnerable heart can take to grief?! How dare you see her for a handicapped weakling when all she ever was and ever will be is a strong and beautiful beyond any alive! How could you let your worry overshadow your love for her?'  
  
Legolas looked at the flowers around him; they had wilted at the elf's anger. His unrelenting merciless rage at one who was a dear friend of his. Over the friend's daughter. What was wrong with him?  
  
Then a little voice in his mind spoke, 'The only thing wrong is a tear in Leyadriel's bright blue eyes.' 


	8. boys and girls

A/N- Ur reviews are so nice! I was almost crying when I read some of them, I was so happy that people liked my fic. Diolla lle! Thank you! Here's more.  
  
Btw, I don't own LOTR (don't you know this by now?)  
  
Chapter 8- Boys and Girls  
  
**Leyadriel's Eleventh Birthday **  
  
Aragorn kept a vigilant watch over his daughter and the strange young boy that she hadn't parted from all night. His wife came up beside him, she had seen this boy as well.  
  
"Ya naa ho?" {Who is he?} She asked.  
  
"Pengwaith." (Pronounced pen-wayth) (Silent g) Aragorn answered, "He's the young son of the cousin of Prince Imrahil."  
  
"Little lord?" {Elvish/ human translation of Pengwaith} Arwen smirked.  
  
"It suits him." Aragorn frowned.  
  
"How cute, "Arwen cooed, "her first crush."  
  
"He's too old for her."  
  
"How old is he?"  
  
"Two years older then her."  
  
"I'm twenty seven hundred years older then you, melethnin." {My love.}  
  
"**What is she doing with a boy?! She's eleven years old! **" Aragorn's face was red with anger and fatherly protection of his little girl.  
  
Arwen giggled gently and threw a smile at her husband, "It's harmless childhood romance, darling, surely you remember such things."  
  
Aragorn scowled at the boy who was now holding his daughter's hand and smiling widely, as though he'd won a prize.  
  
"Aragorn," Arwen chastised, "you didn't mind when Eldarion got his first crush."  
  
"Eldarion isn't my little girl."  
  
Arwen kissed her husband's cheek and scanned the room for Elaren. Her smile widened as she saw the young Elaren staring fixedly at a man of her own. Or rather, an elf. "Take your mind off Leyadriel, my love, and watch Elaren." Arwen giggled as Aragorn saw his younger daughter......oogling Legolas.  
  
The third child of Aragorn sat unmoving watching Legolas with a fantasy- full gaze, her light colored hair was blowing softly in the breeze. She had hair as light as the object of her affection, a gift from Celeborn and Galadriel. Elaren had boys of her own age watching her intently but she was set on the ancient archer.  
  
Legolas moved towards Leyadriel, protectively prying her away from Pengwaith for a dance. Aragorn made mental note to thank him later. Pengwaith sulked as the two elves danced gracefully to the music. Elaren looked hurt that she hadn't been chosen as the Prince of Mirkwood's dance partner. She scanned the other boys closer to her own age asking to dance and rolled her eyes exaggeratedly. Pengwaith caught this and followed her gaze to the Prince and Princess dancing.  
  
Pengwaith moved over to Elaren and whispered something in her ear. She nodded happily and they went out on the dance floor and Aragorn was forced to breathe deeply to stop his violently shaking body, which was set to explode with anger. Arwen normally would have commented but she too was watching the scene with interest.  
  
As the two children turned and swayed with the music they drew closer to Legolas and Leyadriel. Suddenly, but surprisingly smoothly for such young children, they intercepted the archer with Elaren and the princess was left to Pengwaith. Slickly but quickly the young lord whisked Leyadriel to the other side of the dance floor before she could even say good-bye to Legolas. Pengwaith smiled at her and whispered, "I wanted you all to myself, Elf Princess."  
  
This made Leyadriel smile but she still glanced at Legolas and her sister with a desirable look on her face. Pengwaith noticed this and teased, "Got eyes for the Prince of Mirkwood, have you? Isn't he too old for you?"  
  
Leyadriel answered back, "You're old for me too, besides if I had eyes for him I wouldn't be dancing with you."  
  
After the dance ended, Pengwaith wanted to dance again but Leyadriel just smiled sweetly and walked away, disappearing in the crowd. She didn't see Legolas give Elaren's dance to her father as Aragorn whispered, "Will you be forever saving my daughter from that brat lord?"  
  
Legolas laughed, "If I am here, it will be my honor."  
  
Aragorn smiled at his friend and craned his neck in search of Leyadriel. "Speaking of my elfling, where is she?"  
  
Legolas searched the room and saw Pengwaith dancing with a different girl. "She's not with Pengwaith."  
  
"Thank Elbereth."  
  
"She's probably in the gardens," Legolas said, "I'll go look for her."  
  
"Diolla lle, mellonamin." {Thank you, my friend.}  
  
"My pleasure, mellon." {Friend} Legolas answered, turning towards the gardens as he spoke.  
  
He turned down path after path looking for Leyadriel and finally came upon her in the same garden he had found her in the last time. She was holding a white rose from a neighboring bush and inhaling its sweet scent.  
  
She looked up as he walked near and her face lit up. His very being brought a smile to her face but she didn't speak, just moved over so he could sit next to her.  
  
"Tonight was Elaren's first appearance. I thought she'd get all the attention, even though it is my birthday celebration. Then Gwaination {son of Gwainath} told me I was beautiful and said he wanted to be near me. He wanted to dance with me."  
  
"I'm happy for you, Leyadriel, I am. Just make sure that the son isn't like the father."  
  
Gwainath was a ruthless lord. Very powerful but not because he was a good man but because he was good at getting the good mean out of his way. His wife was proud and vain. She was, herself, an eighth elvish and Pengwaith was a sixteenth elvish. Curse good elvish blood in their corrupt bodies.  
  
"He could be Sauron himself for all I care." Leyadriel said looking sadly at her rose.  
  
Legolas' eyes widened and he was shocked to hear such words from such a young child.  
  
"Why do you say such foul things, pen mir?"{Little jewel.} He nearly demanded his question answered but the child wasn't touched by his shock, she just traced the flower petals of the flower nearly the same hue as her fair skin.  
  
"So soft." She cooed. Then her fingers gently left the petals and traced the scar from the corner of her eye to her collarbone. "I'm not soft anymore, not pretty."  
  
"Lle naa vanima!" {You are vanima!} Legolas exclaimed but the young girl shook her head and sighed.  
  
"If I was beautiful, people wouldn't be afraid to look at me." A tear rolled down one ivory cheek. His heart shivered at her cold view of the world and he gently wiped the tear away. For a moment he just gazed into her eyes and saw every inch of her radiance. All elves had luminescent qualities but she glowed like a white flame.  
  
"The only reason they are afraid to look is that their afraid that you will only be a glorious dream. They're afraid they'll love you and you'll only disappear when they wake."  
  
He stroked her cheek gently and she smiled. Then she threw her arms around his neck in a tight embrace. He held her tightly against him, hoping that he had killed her insecurities as surely as he could like a creature.  
  
"Diolla lle, mellon." {Thank you, friend.} She whispered into his ear. He shivered as her breath tickled his tip. She was a child and didn't realize she had done a very suggestive thing. But he easily pushed these thoughts from his mind.  
  
She pulled away and he kissed her scarred cheek.  
  
"Lle naa ten'oio vanima, edhel tarien." {You are forever beautiful, Elf Princess.} He told her and she smiled again at him.  
  
"Leyadriel!" Arwen called, "Iel amin! Randir amin! Tula sinome!" {My daughter! My wanderer! Come here!}  
  
Arwen paused for a moment, listening for her daughter's response. When none came she tried again, "Leyadriel, tul nev! Saes!" {Come hither! Please!}  
  
"Im sinome, atar!" {I come, mother!} Leyadriel called to Arwen before turning to Legolas with a grin and said, "Namarie!" {Farewell!}  
  
"Namarie, pen mir." He answered as she ran towards her mother.  
  
Then he was left with hearing her words over and over again in his head:  
  
'I wouldn't care if he were Sauron!' 'They wouldn't be afraid to look at me.'  
  
The look of utter sadness in her eyes, of self disappointment was heart- wrenching. Her face had burned his eyes as they saw it, it pained his soul to see such a youth so depressed about something no one could have prevented. She was so terribly sad. He swore to himself that he would do anything to keep the grief in her life away from her heart, swore he would make her happy at any cost.  
  
A/N- And so the plot thickens. What do you guys think of Pengwaith? Of Elaren? What about my poor Le? 


	9. Pen mir Little gem

A/N- Just to cover my ass, elven friendship are very intimate things because, well, when you live forever you get to be pretty damn intimate with your friends; so if Lego and Le seem a little too close but their just friends, blame on them being elves. Thanks again for your support, everyone!  
  
Chapter 9- Pen mir {little gem}  
  
***Leyadriel has been 16 for two weeks***  
  
The blades clashed in a heated dance. Still, there was a well defined position between the swordsmen. One was taller and seemed to be in the defensive while the shorter was pushing forth aggressively. Even though the thrusts and sweeps were strong, the taps of contact were feather-light so that neither would be hurt. Suddenly the shorter one gracefully pushed through the other's defense and placed the blade over their throat.  
  
"Good show, my daughter." The taller one, now defeated, took off the mask they'd been wearing, revealing Aragorn son of Arathorn growing old but still being strong.  
  
Aragorn had 5 daughters but only two female fighters. He was with one now.  
  
"Diolla lle, adar." {Thank you, father.}Leyadriel said as she removed her protective mask and her black tresses fell down her spine.  
  
"Pen mir?" A voice questioned behind her. She let out a high pitched shriek and hurled herself into the arms of the elf behind her.  
  
"Legolas! Mellon! It has been far too long!" Legolas swung Leyadriel in a playful circle and planted a chaste kiss on her forehead.  
  
"It has! Now I find I need a new pet name for you, for you're little no longer!" Legolas gazed over Leyadriel, who now wore a white circlet on her head, signifying that she was an adult in the eyes of her parents and her people.  
  
Leyadriel pouted when his gaze allowed his fingertips to touch the edge of her circlet, she over dramatized her sadness.  
  
"Amin hiraetha, Leyadriel. I'm very sorry that I missed your crowning. I missed my flower bloom by a fortnight!"  
  
His hand fell from her crown to her face and his fingers danced over her soft cheek. Someone loudly cleared their throat behind Legolas, Leyadriel looked over his shoulder and her face lit. She flew into another man's wild embrace. Aragorn scowled but forced a smile when his daughter looked at him and Legolas.  
  
"Legolas, mellon, this is Pengwaith. Pengwaith this is a dear family and personal friend, Legolas." She introduced and the two bowed civilly. {Friend}  
  
"Lord Pengwaith, tis an honor to see you again." Legolas spoke more out of affection for Leyadriel then being pleased that the two were still together.  
  
"And you, as well, Prince Legolas." Pengwaith choked out, hiding his agitation at seeing the elf poorly.  
  
Both remembered that night of dancing so long ago, neither forgot that the other was a threat. Pengwaith didn't even bow to Aragorn, nor acknowledge his presence at all, instead he kissed the princess' lips fro a prolonged moment and then whispered something into her ear, soft enough so that Legolas did not hear, and she nodded.  
  
"Namarie mellon! Adar! I will return in a few hours from riding."  
  
With that they walked off, hands clasped. Aragorn let out a harsh cry and muttered Elvish curses.  
  
"Thaur dagnir-o nin! Mor-cora adan! Ring vasa-o iel amin!" {Abominable bane of mine! Black hearted man! Cold consumer of my daughter!}Aragorn cried, "If not for Leyadriel's affection for him I'd shoot him myself! His rudeness and corruption are innate and strong. Elbereth! If I ever find out that he laid one fingertip on her out of place I'll...." And with an enraged cry he vaulted his sword deep into the heart of a distant tree.  
  
"What do you mean, Estel?" Legolas questioned.  
  
Aragorn's face was red with anger.  
  
"I pray I'm overreacting." He started.  
  
Legolas nodded to egg him on.  
  
"It's just that.....sometimes she comes home with bruises she didn't leave with."  
  
Legolas stiffened in antagonism and his face was dark with suspicion, "You mean he...."  
  
Aragorn cut in darkly, "I have no solid evidence.....but the minute I do I'll kill him with my bare hands!" He growled but then softened as he added, "She doesn't deserve any more pain."  
  
Legolas bowed his head for a moment, calming down before asking gently, "Then they have not left her?"  
  
"No." Aragorn shook his head sadly, "More and more she grows to where her beauty rivals Arwen's and Luthien's...but I fear her grief will rival theirs as well."  
  
Legolas' heart went out to his friend and he put a hand on his shoulder in support. Arwen still grieved the loss of her family deep in her heart and everyone knew Aragorn still felt guilt over taking her from them. More so now then ever.  
  
When his children were born, he rejoiced and lamented for he now understood what he had robbed Elrond and the others of. He cursed that he wasn't born of the Eldar, for only one of his children had the choice of immortality and without that choice they would never see their grandfather or any other elvish relatives again. All but one of his children were damned to be human. Leyadriel was only given the choice because Galadriel had made her her heir, the heir to the elves, or else she too would have been mortal.  
  
Then Legolas spoke softly and petted his friend's shoulder, "She doesn't seem grieved or in pain, her light is brighter then ever."  
  
Aragorn's face fell and his voice lowered, "She excels at hiding it."  
  
A/N- your opinion is highly prized. Review, please? 


	10. Bruises She Came Home With

A/N- A Note to EVERYONE; please read the next chapter; it may be an author's note but that's just a Cookie for you guys in disguise!  
  
Disclaimer- I don't own LOTR, not mine. I do own Le, Elaren and the other sisters, I own Du amrun, I own Pengwaith (yuck) and I own his family and I own Lego and Le's rose bush!! If you want what's mine, you have to ask.  
  
Chapter 10- Bruises She Came Home With  
  
****Takes place at the same time as the last chapter but in a different place****  
  
"Stop here." Pengwaith ordered his horse sharply as Leyadriel hopped off Du- amrun beside him. Her hood was up, her hair was flowing down her front and her pale skin contrasted her midnight locks. Her eyes took in the scene before her and widened as a smile slid across her face.  
  
"Ay, Pengwaith! Ta naa ikotane vanima! Im meleth ta! Ikotane vanima." {Oh, Pengwaith! It is so beautiful! I love it! So beautiful.} She whispered, he had led her to a crystalline river where a willow was weeping. The birds that fluttered from branch to branch sang a song for the sky that was being painted oranges and pinks with the setting sun.  
  
"What?" He asked and she turned to face him, laughing melodiously.  
  
"You have elvish blood, you bear an elvish name and yet you do not speak elvish. Tsk, tsk." She chastised.  
  
"I may not speak elvish, but I *know* elvish." He emphasized as he pulled her tightly to him for a strong kiss. His tongue ravished her mouth fiercely. Without waiting for his lover's reply he swiftly pushed her to the ground under the willow. At this the birds flew away, frightened by the loud thud her body made against the hard earth. Then he vaulted on top of her and forced her cloak open before throwing it to the side. He then attacked her tunic fiercely and had a great deal of difficulty on the buttons.  
  
He slapped her face and swore, "Damn it, woman! How many times must I tell you to dress as a lady and not as a tomboy out to war!?"  
  
Finally he tugged her pants off with an effort and half ripped her tunic open to expose her breasts to the tree. She reached up to undress him but her hands were slapped away smartly. He muttered something about not needed a woman to help him undress. She leaned up to kiss him but he grabbed her face with his hands and pounded a kiss on her lips. Lips that had been pink but were now swollen.  
  
Pengwaith put one hand down to her breast and squeezed it tightly enough o leave fingernail indents on it, then he thrust himself into her so cruelly that her lower back kept hitting the ground beneath her. The tangled his hands in her hair and would pull in closer or farther from him with it using such strength that it felt as though her hair would be pulled from her head.  
  
But he kept whispering, "My pretty one, my pretty one."  
  
Those three words were all she heard and all she felt; abuse she would take over neglect.  
  
Their lovemaking progressed in this sadistic manner for a time before Pengwaith rolled off of her to take a nap, closing his eyes without so much as a second glance at Leyadriel. She tried to wrap an arm around him but her arm was pushed away and her lover muttered, "Get off and go find the horses." She did not immediately move so he threw his elbow out and it connected to her hip.  
  
Leyadriel got up and put on her clothing, hiding the marks of passion as well as she could. Then she quietly went off to collect their horses.  
  
Du-amrun trotted up to her when she called and she looked around the area and asked the animal, "Where is Amara? Do you know, mellon?" {friend}  
  
The horse snorted as if to say, 'Don't know, don't care, let's go home.'  
  
"Now, rochamin {my horse}, we can't leave Pengwaith's horse out here alone, you know how he feels about her."  
  
For an hour she looked until she gave up and rode back to the clearing where Pengwaith was beginning to stir.  
  
"Where's my pride and joy?" He asked grumpily as he looked for his horse, "Where's my Amara?"  
  
"I couldn't find her." Leyadriel said honestly.  
  
"Stupid woman can't even find a damned horse. Can't really do anything right."  
  
He whistled and his horse whinnied and came out at a trot from the other side of the willow, he cooed to her, "Just where I told you to wait, good horse, good girl. Good Amara."  
  
Pengwaith mounted his steed and pulled towards Leyadriel and said, "Thank you for loving me, my radiant light."  
  
He kissed her cheek and rode off before she could say a word. As usual, she felt wanted but......alone. No matter, someone loved her, that's all she wanted. That's all she wanted in the world of either shore.  
  
"Ride where you wish, mellon." She whispered to her horse.  
  
The horse neighed happily and cantered off so that its rider could breath and have some time for herself. But a half an hour later, Leyadriel was steering her towards home.  
  
Leyadriel was putting away Du-amrun, worrying about what to wear that Pengwaith would like, then being anything but oblivious to her surroundings.  
  
"The blue? No, he hates the waistline. Perhaps the pink, no he hates the color. Maybe," She pondered aloud. As she pondered her half ripped tunic exposed her back to the stable, also exposing the large bruise on her lower back from hitting the ground over and over.  
  
Oblivious as she was, Leyadriel didn't notice two figures hiding in the shadows trying to withhold gasps at the big, ugly bruise across nearly all of the princess' lower back.  
  
A/N- Pen's a prick. Le's being an idiot, and there are two shadows. Hmmm, comments? Questions? Perhaps a joke? Or a limerick? Just BE SURE TO READ THE NEXT PAGE 


	11. Confrontations

A/N- Hope you are participated in the poll. Remember, the poll DOES NOT include this chapter, only one through ten  
  
Chapter 11- Confrontation  
  
Gimli had arrived in Gondor shortly after Legolas and Aragorn's conversation ended. Trying to calm down, Legolas and his short friend went for a walk.  
  
"So, how is Arod? I hate to say it but I've missed the beast." Gimli said.  
  
"He is well. Would you like to see him?"  
  
"Aye."  
  
So they tramped off to the stables and were petting Arod down, Gimli fed him a few sugar cubes before they heard a horse approach. A few minutes later Leyadriel came in, tunic and pants a mess and hair no better. One side of her face was a little red and she was whispering to herself in deep thought. Then she turned her back to them and both tried valiantly to restrain a cry of surprise.  
  
A big ugly bruise spread over most of all of her lower back. She left, still pondering, and Legolas and Gimli let out their breath.  
  
"What happened to her?" Gimli asked.  
  
"I don't know, I don't think it was there earlier.....we must see Aragorn."  
  
The two went off to see Aragorn with their news. He was happy when he opened the door to see them but his mood grew grey when he saw their faces. Legolas told him in detail and when he was through Aragorn pounded a fist violently against his desk.  
  
"I'LL HAVE THAT BOY'S HIDE!!!"  
  
Aragorn took off at a charge towards Leyadriel's chambers. Legolas and Gimli followed but at a distance, after all they were not family. Then again they were certainly not strangers. They watched their friend, to make sure he controlled his temper. Aragorn took a deep calming breath before knocking at the door.  
  
"Come in!" Her voice called and her father walked in. Legolas and Gimli walked away, seeing that Aragorn had reined his anger. But even as they walked away both desperately wanted to hear the word exchange.  
  
*** The Word Exchange***  
  
"Adar! To what do I owe this pleasure?" Leyadriel said happily, she rarely saw her father when they weren't training, for running a kingdom was no small task. She also felt as though her parents felt guilty about her dreams. She had never in her life blamed her parents for the nightmares...but rather herself. She always believed that Eru {elvish God- like symbol} knew she was going to do something horrible in her lifetime and punished her accordingly. She always believed that because it made her circumstances bearable.  
  
"I came to see if you were alright." He said evenly.  
  
Two spots of blush touched her cheeks when he spoke, she managed to answer nonchalantly, "I'm fine, Adar." {Father}  
  
His eyes narrowed as she turned her back to him. He reached out a hand and touched her lower back and she flinched. "Im sinta ta, Leyadriel. Why did you lie to me?" {I knew it.}  
  
"So you wouldn't get angry, Adar. Twas an accident nothing more. Nothing that needed to be shared, you are after all troubled by far more then a clumsy act of mine."  
  
He laughed mockingly, "You an elven princess, blood and training have never let you trip or fall in your life. Accident." He huffed, "I highly doubt that all your accidents coinciding with you bedding that brat are just mere coincidences."  
  
She blushed furiously at her father's words before he continued, "Don't look so surprised, daughter, that I know what lusty lords and ladies do. I was one myself."  
  
She clenched her eyes shut against the image and spoke back, "Adar, am I not perfectly capable of defending myself? An accident occurred for I would let nothing else happen! I am your daughter after all."  
  
"You are but you are not acting like it! You may not mind your pain but I do! I love you more then my life, I probably love you more then you love yourself! I am going to watch you and our 'little lord'. If one toe of his goes out of line I shall exile him for I will risk no more hurt to you. Not if I can prevent it." And under his breath he muttered, "This time."  
  
But her ears picked it up. Her heart clenched and she cried out, "Is that what this is about, then? Trying to undo the dreams?"  
  
"No, it's about saving you." He answered sternly, trying to hide that she was at least half right.  
  
"I don't need saving! I'm happy! Or would you save me from that?" She roared.  
  
"If it makes you bruise and bleed then *yes*!" He cried loudly before going to the door, "That is final, daughter. I pray you understand."  
  
He went out in a huff and Leyadriel threw a vase against a wall shattering it on impact. Then she screamed loudly grabbing her arrows and bow and sprinting to the archery range; deciding to for go dinner. She was furiously firing arrows right into the bull's eye, some arrows splitting others.  
  
The she split 3 direct bull's eyes and a voice behind her said, "You've made yourself quite the archer in these years, pen mir." {Little jewel}  
  
"Diolla lle, tarenamin." {Thank you, my Prince} She said with forced calm.  
  
"Amin hiraetha, tarien." {I'm sorry, princess.} He said, coming up behind her.  
  
"Mani?" {What?} She asked at his words, she and Legolas had been close since the day she was born, practically, rarely if ever did they hurt each other.  
  
"Amin hiraetha. I was in the stables with Gimli when you returned. We saw your back and told your father." {I'm sorry.}  
  
"MANI!" {WHAT!} Her tone was angry but her eyes were betrayed. He put a finger over her lips and looked into her eyes.  
  
"I did it for your protection."  
  
"I thought I could trust you!" She cried and she tried to walk away but Legolas stopped her and just the look in his eyes made her rethink shooting him in the kneecap.  
  
"You have my trust but I will not keep my silence if you are being harmed."  
  
"They are accidents!" She exclaimed, "Not injuries!"  
  
"That's a lie, Leyadriel. You would confide in me that these bruises were accidents, but you always failed to mention that they came after Pengwaith left. I will not stay silent too much longer if you are still hurt by him. I will not keep years of abuse from your parents even if it was not classified to me as such. I'm sorry, my little jewel, but that is final." He said these words gently, every syllable showing her he was doing this out of concern for her not because he was angry she had lied to him or felt guilty at her state.  
  
She huffed and a tear slid down one cheek at the look of protection Legolas gave her, filled with plutonic adoration.  
  
"Why does everyone train me to be a capable defender and never let me defend myself?!" She cried exasperated.  
  
"We do let you defend yourself; we simply defend you when you aren't doing it yourself."  
  
"I always defend myself."  
  
"But not against him. If you did you wouldn't have your back completely black and blue."  
  
"An accident! An accident from the passions we shared."  
  
"Maybe once is a passionate mishap, but NOT multiple wounds on multiple occasions over multiple years."  
  
Leyadriel looked wounded on huffed at his words.  
  
"Pen miramin, let us make this simple. Answer my questions shortly." {My little jewel.}  
  
She nodded disdainfully.  
  
"Are you hurt in some way?"  
  
"Uma." {Yes.}  
  
"Did he hurt you?"  
  
He saw her hesitate and glared at her, showing his care and impatience.  
  
"Uma." {Yes.}  
  
"Did you tell me of the injuries but hide their source?"  
  
She bowed her head, ashamed, "Uma." {Yes.}  
  
Another tear rolled down her cheek and his heart quivered. "Amin hiraetha, pen mir. Amin hiraetha." {I'm sorry, little jewel. I'm sorry.}  
  
He enclosed Leyadriel in his arms but she pushed away and glared at him, "Uuma eesa amin pen, Legolas! Lle elea Im u-pen si. Not little nor vulnerable any longer. Not crying for you to hold me until the evils in this world pass! I no longer call for others to defend me! I am grown!" {Don't name me little, Legolas. You see I am not little now.}  
  
He stood shocked and hurt by her words but this did not phase her. She looked at him again, "Leave me alone, Edhel." {Elf}  
  
She nearly ran off. From the shadows Pengwaith smiled victoriously and whispered, "Bishop endangers Queen."  
  
Legolas perceived and huffed, "A move that is impossible. For the Queen is always an endangerment to the Bishop."  
  
"You'll never beat me, elf. I'm the only side *with* a Queen."  
  
"For now, but I have all my pawns awaiting their crowns."  
  
"She's mine, Legolas, not yours."  
  
"I've not tried to claim her as mine but I will not see her be yours."  
  
"Nor I." Aragorn's voice rose behind Legolas.  
  
"Knight takes Bishop, Pengwaith." Legolas murmured.  
  
"Leave my daughter alone or I'll skin you alive." The King threatened truthfully, anyone could hear the malice in his voice.  
  
A rustle of leaves said that Pengwaith left.  
  
"I hear he's a poor chess player." Legolas commented, rage was flickering in his veins at Pengwaith.  
  
"And you've had three thousand years of practice." Aragorn managed a weak smile.  
  
The two friends talked, plotted mostly, until late at night. They parted ways when Aragorn went to keep his wife company in bed. Legolas roamed the gardens for a time before winding up in the garden with a bench and a white rose bush.  
  
He smiled at the bush and remembered a younger Leyadriel, stroking rose petals as pale as her skin. Legolas approached the bush and cut a flower from it, then cut off the thorns. Pausing momentarily, he inhaled its sweet scent and took a silken scarf from his pocket.  
  
A high pitched scream racked his ears and scalded his heart. His friend's elfling was ailing again, Legolas made his way back to the palace. He came under Leyadriel's balcony and easily scaled until he sat on it after reaching the top. The sight he saw did nothing to calm him; a nurse was binding Leyadriel's wrist which was slashed and bleeding and another was pressing a cloth against her mouth, the fabric drenched in blood.  
  
After a time they left her and he took a quiet breath and wrapped the scarf around the rose's stem, walked in to her room and sat on the edge of her bed.  
  
"Leave, Edhel." {Elf} She said turning her face so he couldn't see her split lip.  
  
He caressed her lips with the soft rose petals as though giving a soft kiss.  
  
"Amin ikotane hiraetha. I never meant to hurt you, just to protect you. I realize you're grown and you don't want to be protected. But you are very dear to all of us, and none of us want to see you harmed. Amin ikotane hiraetha, edhel tarien. Saes, hiraetha amin." {I'm so sorry.} {I'm so sorry, elf princess.} {Please, forgive me.}  
  
He offered the rose, which she eagerly accepted and smelled. She put the silk against her skin to test its texture. She even let out a low moan from its smoothness. Legolas' ears perked when he heard this because no matter age or race, he was still male and his body only knew that he was sitting on a bed that had a beautiful woman in it who happened to be moaning. His body didn't comprehend that she was Leyadriel Telcontar, daughter of Elessar the High King of Gondor.  
  
Legolas struggled to keep his body under control as Leyadriel opened her arms for an embrace, saying in a voice full of regret, "Hiraetha lle? Lle merna hiraetha amin! I want to be treated like an adult yet I act like a child." {Forgive you? You need to forgive me.}  
  
He embraced her and stroked her raven feather hair and responded, "You act like a bird testing her wings so she can soon fly. I do not grudge you your anger if you don't grudge me wanting you not to fly too far."  
  
A tear down her cheek proved that his words broke through her outer shell and touched her heart. The tear dropped from her cheek onto his and then ran onto his lips, making him taste its saltiness.  
  
'Elbereth! I don't know why I'm having so much trouble restraining myself. *It's* *Aragorn's* *daughter*!'  
  
The embrace ended and he kissed her forehead fondly before disappearing out the window again.  
  
A/N- Sorry about the confusing chess match, but it seemed right. What do you guys think? 


	12. Sisters

A/N- Remember to vote for your favorite scene from CHAPTERS 1-10 ONLY. The other chapters will have goodies later. I promise. For now, I have to remember the Disclaimer; I don't own LOTR, not mine, but you must ask permission to use my things.  
  
Chapter 12- Sisters  
  
***In the morning***  
  
Galaniel crept up on her sister, who was reading a book in her room, and leapt on Leyadriel crying, "Got you!"  
  
Leyadriel laughed and wrestled with her youngest sister until they lay, laughing merrily, on the floor.  
  
"You always were the rowdy one, Galaniel. You kicked Mother's stomach mercilessly before you were even born."  
  
"They say I take after Adar." {Father.}  
  
"You do! It's like giving him another son. Only a beautiful and feminine son."  
  
"But doesn't he already have Eldarion?"  
  
This sent them into peels of laughter. Then Galaniel grew solemn and said, "Speaking of feminine men, who was in your room last night?"  
  
Leyadriel took the flower, still wrapped in the silk scarf, from her bedside table and let her sister smell it before saying, "Legolas."  
  
"Adar mellon?" {Father's friend.} She asked with wide eyes.  
  
"And mine as well. He was apologizing to me for telling ada {daddy} about my back, and then I apologized for behaving so immaturely."  
  
"So you two kissed and made up?" Galaniel asked suggestively, using a wiggle of her eyebrows to emphasize her point.  
  
"N'UMA! Not in the slightest."  
  
"Good. You do know Elaren would kill you if you were with him."  
  
"Elaren? Do tell, pen neth." {Little one.}  
  
Galaniel snuffed at the name but told her sister, "Ask Celebrene, she loves to gossip."  
  
*** I hour later in Celebrene's rooms***  
  
"Leyadriel! It had been too long since we had a little chat."  
  
"Uma, it has, sister." {Yes.} Leyadriel nodded in agreement.  
  
"What is it you wish to know?" Celebrene asked.  
  
"I hear that Elaren would kill me if my friend and I were to become close?"  
  
"Which friend?"  
  
"Taren Legolas, Thranduilion." {Prince Legolas, son of Thranduil.}  
  
"You didn't know?"  
  
"Know what?"  
  
"That Elaren has been after Legolas for years...since your 11th birthday, I believe."  
  
Leyadriel's eyes widened in shock. "Really?"  
  
Celebrene nodded and said, "Watch her tonight, at dinner."  
  
************That night at dawn**************  
  
Legolas was deep in conversation with Aragorn and Arwen, but he could feel eyes on him. Casually, he took in the room and found one of his watchers.  
  
Elaren usually gazed on him but not nearly so fixedly as now, apparently she felt her competition and she was staking her claim. Then she threw a glare at someone, but it made no sense to him.  
  
She was glaring at Leyadriel, who's gaze had been flicking between her sister and he all evening. When the first dance came to life, Aragorn and Arwen swept onto the floor completely with each other. Pengwaith, Aragorn had mentioned earlier, was being watched by some physically persuasive guards and he would hopefully remain away from dinner this night. Legolas took it upon himself to take Pengwaith's place for a time.  
  
"May I have this dance, arwenamin?" {My lady} He bowed before his future queen, the one who would take Galadriel's place above them all.  
  
"Uma, tarenamin." {Yes, my prince.} She took his hand and smiled as he led her to the dance floor.  
  
"I didn't think you wished to be alone." He whispered in her ear.  
  
"Diolla lle, mellonamin." {Thank you, my friend.} Again her breathe against his ear made him struggle against feelings of want for a beautiful she-elf.  
  
The waltz ended and Leyadriel whispered to him, "My sister seems quite infatuated with you; perhaps you will indulge her young fantasies?"  
  
He nodded and agreed because he knew Leyadriel would be happy if Elaren was happy.  
  
Legolas approached Elaren and bowed saying, "May I have this dance, Lady Elaren?"  
  
She smiled seductively and accepted his outstretched hand. He led her to the floor and waited to hear what song would start.  
  
As the first few notes flowed, Legolas let out a soft groan. It was Aniron, the most seductive dance in any of the elvish realms or any of the other kingdoms. Elaren's smile doubled as she took the starting position, with her hips pressed tightly against his, her back arched and his arms were around her lower back.  
  
The beat flowed more now and their legs and arms entangled amid dips and twirls. Elaren brushed her skin against his at every opportunity and she tickled the tip of his ear with her breathe, though not as innocently as Leyadriel. Elaren would whisper in a sensual tone, "Such a talented dancer." "So perfect." "I wish we could be closer."  
  
Normally Legolas would be flattered or try to take his admirer as a lover for the night but not now. This was not only Aragorn and Arwen's daughter but Elaren was overly full of herself. She was fair and she damn well knew it. He hated people, of any race, that were that full of themselves.  
  
At some point during the dance, Leyadriel walked onto the balcony, trying to hide her laughter at her younger sister's obvious advances on a three thousand year old elf prince. When the dance ended Legolas bowed and forced a thank you, even managing to ignore her fluttering eyelashes and swelling breast.  
  
He went to get air, to laugh at the child's advances and to see Leyadriel.  
  
"Quel du, tarenamin." {Good evening/night my prince.} She whispered formally.  
  
He chuckled at the title and replied, "Quel du, tarienamin." {Good night/evening my princess.}  
  
She curtsied and said, "Tis an honor, Taren o Eryn Lasgalen, Legolas Thranduilion." {Prince of the Wood of Greenleaves, Legolas son of Thranduil.}  
  
With a deep bow he replied, "The honor is mine Tarien o Gondor, Iel o Dunedain, Hiril o Eldar, Vana Ien o Imladris a Lothlorien." {Princess of Gondor, Daughter of the West Men, Lady of the Elves, Beautiful Maiden of Rivendell and Lothlorien.}  
  
"You win." Leyadriel said blushing and laughing at the same time.  
  
"You still hate to hear your titles, Leyadriel? Like when you were a child?"  
  
"Some things never change. Titles are titles, I'm a person." She responded, and then she smiled evilly, "Speaking of people with titles, how was your dance with the Pheidan?" {Pheidan means Half-Elven and was Elrond's last name; Elaren has given herself the title of Pheidan}  
  
"I'll never forgive you for not warning me that the child was pursuing me that heavily." He teased.  
  
"Amin hiraetha." She said lightly. {I'm sorry.}  
  
Then Leyadriel's ears perked up and her body began to sway gently. Legolas listened more intently and heard one of his favorite songs playing.  
  
"Do you like this song?" He asked Leyadriel, who had closed her eyes as she listened.  
  
"Uma. Im mela ta." {Yes. I love it.} She responded as Legolas took her hand in one of his and wrapped an arm around her waist.  
  
"Then you mustn't be restrained from dancing to it." As they danced, Legolas began to sing softly along with the music.  
  
"I did not know this song had words." Leyadriel whispered in his ear, innocently unlike her sister.  
  
"There is much you have yet to learn. You are still very young, pen mir." {Little jewel.}  
  
"How do you know the words?"  
  
"Tis one of my favorites."  
  
"Will you teach me the words?"  
  
"Uma, pen miramin.{Yes, my little jewel.} If you wish to know them I will teach you."  
  
He couldn't see her face because her cheek was against his, her head partially on his shoulder, but he could feel her smile widen and her heart fly as she said, "Aiya! Diolla lle, mellonamin! Diolla lle!" {Oh! Thank you my friend! Thank you!}  
  
Legolas gripped her tighter, closer, in a chaste embrace. After the dance a scowling Pengwaith came to claim Leyadriel. Most everyone was surprised to see the 'Little Lord' in the dining hall; apparently he had gotten past the guards that were supposed to keep him in his rooms this night. Leyadriel realized her time with Legolas had come to an abrupt end and she murmured to him, "Meet me in the rose garden, at midnight."  
  
"Uma." {Yes.} He promised.  
  
**** After Pengwaith dragged Leyadriel away from the dining hall****  
  
Leyadriel was sitting on the bench in the rose garden but with Pengwaith for now, not Legolas.  
  
"I thought Adar was keeping you under house arrest?" Leyadriel inquired. {Father}  
  
"Yes he was an if it hadn't been for your flabby little mouth he wouldn't have been. How could you do this to me you ungrateful bitch?!"  
  
"I did nothing! Others saw my back!" She defended herself.  
  
"How were they able to see it? Who else are you lying down and spreading for?"  
  
"No one!" She screamed in shock, "I love you Pengwaith, I have bedded you and only you!"  
  
"I don't believe you for a second you filthy human whore!"  
  
Leyadriel's rage built up and she hit him right in his mouth, "Watch your tongue."  
  
Pengwaith licked his bloody lip and spat a crimson spot on the ground. He was not about to take abuse from a woman, much less his woman. He raised his hand back and before she could move away he delivered a swift, hard backhand with all of his weight behind it. The force of the blow sent her backwards and on the ground where she hit her back squarely on the bench.  
  
"DARO FIR-ADAN!" {Stop mortal man!}  
  
Legolas was running towards the scene, Aragorn was at his side.  
  
"You *EVER* touch my daughter again and I'll kill you!" Aragorn roared.  
  
Aragorn's guards seized Pengwaith roughly and would have taken him away....if Leyadriel hadn't screamed, "N'uma, adar! N'uma! Do not take him!" {No, Father! No!}  
  
"And why not?" He countered.  
  
"Im meleth ho! To take him is to kill me!" {I love him.}  
  
"To leave you two alone is to kill you!"  
  
"We argue! We have fights! So do you and atar!" {Mother.}  
  
"I don't beat your mother!"  
  
"No! You prefer to kill her slowly as she drowns in loneliness and grief!"  
  
His daughter's words stunned him. He froze, his guilt at Arwen's plight bursting from a hidden place inside him to full painful existence. In the few seconds he took to recuperate from his daughter's harsh rebuke, she burst into tears and ran away screaming, "On-amin gurth Adar! Nai gurthamin tul minya a u-vendui ve adaramin! On-amin fir gurth si, dagnir-o coramin!" {Give death to me, father! May it be my death comes first and not last like my mother! Give me death now, bane of my heart!}  
  
Pengwaith took full advantage of Aragorn's lapse of attention and ran away. Within the blink of an eye Legolas took a bow from a guard and fitted it with an arrow.  
  
"No!" Aragorn cried before the elf could release it. "Do not shoot him."  
  
The king looked defeated and about to fade away in his grief. Legolas gave the guard back his bow and arrow and told them to leave. A king should not show his subjects his time of weakness; it was cruel for both.  
  
"Mani naa ta, mellonin?" {What is it, my friend?}  
  
"She's right." Aragorn answered as he stared blankly ahead, all the ill deeds of his life flashing before his eyes.  
  
"She spoke in youthful anger."  
  
"That does not change the fact that she is right."  
  
"Arwen is not in agony, Estel."  
  
"She sorely misses her family." Aragorn looked near tears, which struck Legolas. This man, King of Men, a brave soldier and kind soul brought to near devastation because he had fallen in love. That's where, after all, this had all started; the first time he had ever laid his eyes on the Evenstar and knew he loved her. Love had caused all of this pain to him and his loved ones.  
  
"You miss your own mother."  
  
"Yes, but grief will not kill me."  
  
"Arwen naa fir. It will not kill her either." {Arwen is mortal.} Legolas reminded the man.  
  
Aragorn looked down and could not look up, for the tears that threatened to fall could no longer be detained. Anger was boiling in the elf; Leyadriel had found the weakness in her father and unfairly rammed a dagger in. The elf left the mortal to his tears and went to find the man's daughter.  
  
"Leyadriel! Tula sinome! Tula sinome SI!" {Come here! Come here NOW!} He called into the sky, knowing the elven eared child would hear him.  
  
"Im sinome." She said in a low whisper from off to his right. {I'm here.}  
  
"Why? Why must you do that to him? Why must you hurt him?! Your own father!"  
  
"He hurts me, I hurt him. Tis fair!"  
  
Legolas snorted and snarled, "You sound less like learned woman and more like a spoilt child!"  
  
"How do I sound so immature?"  
  
"First of all you put guilt on an innocent man. Second, you are only looking through your eyes."  
  
"Who else's can I look through?"  
  
"Try your father's! Your mother's! For Elbereth's sake look through his and see what he truly desires!"  
  
Her face fell as she took the meaning of his words to heart, the blow was hard and rough but she had to admit she deserved it.  
  
"Pengwaith meleth nin." {Pengwaith loves me.}  
  
"He loves your crown, pen mir, not you. He wouldn't hurt you so, if you were the one he craved." {Little jewel.}  
  
The words she feared so much, the syllables she feared to hear, the truth she did not wish to accept was voiced. She might have been able to deny it, if anyone but he had said it. Legolas she could not ignore.  
  
*Tis true* her heart chanted, *Tis true.*  
  
Leyadriel's tears stopped, she fell to her knees and just stared blankly at her lap. The way she was made it look as if she had numbed herself to the entire world just to forgo the pain of a few simple words.  
  
"Im sinta." She whimpered, "Im uume merna sinta. Im sinta." {I know. I don't want to know. I know.}  
  
Legolas had meant to make her realize, not to drown her in grief. He knelt down beside her and whispered, "Amin hiraetha, pen mir. I did not intend to hurt you." {I'm sorry, little jewel.}  
  
"No one 'intends' to but it happens. I'm used to it by now....but sometimes it just builds up and is too much for me to contain."  
  
"You should not keep pain or hurt bottled inside you, pen mir, for it will only hurt you more."  
  
"If they were outside of me, the sun would never shine."  
  
He stroked her cheek and felt the scar under his fingers, rough from too many years of taking the softness out of them. He drew her gaze up towards his eyes, deep blue pools looking into deeper ones, older ones. Her eyes, also, were red with tears and he couldn't bear the knowledge that he had caused her current pain. He pulled her close and gave her scarred cheek a chaste kiss in apology and felt his heart's burden lessen.  
  
Little did they realize that they were being watched.  
  
A.N- cliffhanger, cliffhanger. 


	13. Who do you believe?

A/N- Hey, I am LOVING all the reviews guys. I'm soooooo happy that people like my story! *happy dance*  
  
But there are a few points I'd like to make now that I've read over the reviews:  
  
I realize that Elrond was an elf-child from a human-elf combo and that his kids were elven but his kids were also a fourth human and Elrond also choose to be elvish. Arwen's children are only three eighths elvish and that's not a half therefore they are mortal. Except Le who is just very friggin special. It took me MANY days to get all the math done for her blood to make sure that all her siblings weren't elvish. Besides you CAN"T screw with Tolkien: Eldarion was mortal. THANK YOU SOOO MUCH TO MY CURIOUS REVIEWER!!! (You know who you are honey!) Who wanted to know how old Le's sisters were..and brought that reality crashing down on me, so I'm going to lay out all the ages for you: Eldarion is 19, Leyadriel is 16, Elaren is 14, the Middle Child (whom I've not yet named) is 13, Celebrene is 11 and Galaniel is 8. Pen isn't going to die yet, he still has a part to play but he will get what's coming to him I swear!  
  
Sry about that! BTW, (two more announcements then the chapter I promise!!!)  
  
I had most of the fic handwritten, that's why updates have been so frequent but when the handwritten part ends is when I'm really going to need all of your support to keep writing. * We have only four favorite scenes that were submitted and they all are different so keep submitting! 1-10 and we'll put up a pic!*  
  
Chapter 13- Who do you believe?  
  
The human flicked a golden hair away from her face and huffed away towards someone whom she was confident would end the little interlude between Leyadriel and the Mirkwood Prince.  
  
Elaren quietly walked away to avoid their ears but as soon as she entered the palace she wailed at the top of her lungs for the one who would separate the prince from her sister.  
  
"Mother!" She even put a little sniff on the end to make the woman come faster. Her mother ran down the stairs noiselessly and even with her age, Arwen was still beautiful. She had aged as gracefully as she had lived for two thousand seven hundred years.  
  
Elaren hated her for that. She hated Leyadriel for it too. Her other three sister's didn't feel as much antagonism towards their own mother and sister; but at times even they had to admit they were envious of such flawlessness, such grace, that they could never have. None, though, were as jealous as Elaren.  
  
All but one of the Telcontar had their father's dark hair and crystalline blue eyes. Elaren was the only one who showed Galadriel's fair head, the only one who displayed true elvish beauty. One would think Elaren would be doted and looked upon by the elves, being the last in Middle-Earth to resemble their fair Lady of the Light. But no. She had the men in her grasp, men who lusted after the elves and reached for them as one might reach for a distant shining star. But she wanted an elven lord to admire her. Better yet, an elven prince.  
  
Ever since she was a young child, Elaren had wanted to be like her sister. Not a warrior nor a horse rider nor an archer but an elf. She wanted to be as graceful as an elf. As thin as an elf. As powerful as an elf, able to control whole halls of men with a single word. As revered as an elf for men spoke highly in respectful whispers of the Eldar.  
  
Arwen came down the stairs, a worried expression crimpling her radiant face into that of a mother, and she looked to her daughter, asking, "Elaren, mani marte?" {Elaren, what happened?"  
  
Elaren made herself burst out in tears and fall into her mother's arms, "Oh, mother," She sobbed, "I just saw the most dreadful thing."  
  
"Mani, iel?" {What, daughter?}  
  
"Leg...Leg...Legolas!" Elaren cried, her whole family knew of Elaren's lifelong attraction to Legolas and knew the child got upset when he was even near another woman.  
  
"What about Legolas?" Arwen asked, understanding that the girl was young and believed herself in love with the elf. Though Arwen believed that Elaren's fancy with the prince would pass, she was empathetic towards her sensitivity about him.  
  
"He was in the gardens with another girl. A girl I knew. They were kissing and.....oh Mother!" She wailed at the end as though she could not bear to utter the words of the goings on she had witnessed.  
  
"Who was it, ielnin?" {My daughter.} Arwen cooed, a little perturbed that Legolas would be doing unmentionable deeds out in the open air of a garden, in *her* garden no less.  
  
"It was.."She sobbed loudly for effect, "my own sister!"  
  
Arwen snapped into motherly alert and took her flaxen haired child by the shoulders, "Elaren!"  
  
Elaren continued to cry and wail her heartbrokenness until Arwen shook her sharply but gently crying, "ELAREN!"  
  
Her third child looked her in the eye at last and her mother said sternly, "Which sister?"  
  
"Leyadriel!" The name came out of Elaren's rosy lips as a moan.  
  
Elaren threw herself into her mother's arms and let her atar {mother} pet her hair and coo soft, comforting words to her. Arwen, however, was only outwardly focused on Elaren. In her mind the Undomiel {Evenstar} was confused and feeling betrayed.....by her pride and joy no less.  
  
In the past, Legolas and Arwen had been lovers. The relationship had been short and terminated only for them to remain close friends. They were like siblings now. Arwen couldn't believe that Legolas would take advantage of Leyadriel even if the girl was willing.  
  
Arwen mulled the idea of them together and the picture was beautiful...it just didn't sit right in her stomach. She refused to believe that her elfling and her mellon {friend} had become lovers after having been friends for so long. And especially without even talking to Arwen or Aragorn! It was outwardly rude and very unlike the gentlemanly prince.  
  
And Leyadriel! Arwen did not want to think that she was sneaking around in the middle of the night to secretly meet with an elf who had been an uncle to her! Elaren was eventually put in her room with sweets being sent up to comfort her. Celebrene and her elder sister were in Galaniel's room tormenting the Ranger's daughter by intricately braiding her chestnut hair for dinner.  
  
The Undomiel was looking for Aragorn to ask him about this. If her knew, his life was forfeit for not even mentioning it *his wife and mother of his children*! After an hour she could not find him and her frustration was weighing heavily on her. Then she saw him, coming out of Elaren's room. The couple ran to each other and asked simultaneously, "Did you know?"  
  
They looked at their spouse each equally shocked by the question.  
  
"You were not aware?" Arwen asked.  
  
"Nor were you, I assume." Aragorn returned.  
  
Arwen collapsed her head against Aragorn's chest and asked, "Are we so blind, melethnin? Was it that obvious? Why did they not come to us?" {My love}  
  
Aragorn kissed her forehead and shook his head, "I wish I knew, Undomiel, I wish I knew."  
  
That night the couple picked up Elaren at her room and brought her to dinner. When they entered all their children were there... Leyadriel was in a deep conversation with Legolas and Eldarion.  
  
She looked amazing, she was in a silver gown that came off her shoulders and dipped slightly in front and back. It went down past her feet and pooled slightly on the ground and she was wearing her Gondorian circlet of silver with wing wings etched around the band. She was not wearing any of the jewelry Galadriel gave her for she was not allowed to until she was crowned by the Elves, and they would decide when that happened simply because by elvish standards she was still a babe. Legolas at that point brushed a loose hair behind her ear, avoiding the tip. He looked well himself in the dark greens of Mirkwood royalty with his own silver circlet etched with golden leaves. His tunic's arms had identical golden leaves from shoulder to wrist and he wore a belt with a leaf fastening. His boots were made of dark honey suede. He and Leyadriel looked a stunning pair and he parents wondered why they had never realized this before.  
  
When Aragorn and his wife sat down, while they ate their meal, throughout the entire evening; they watched Leyadriel and Legolas and wondered. 'Were we truly that blind? Was it truly that obvious? How could we not know? How did we never see a thing between them?'  
  
As the music began Legolas swept Leyadriel onto the floor and they laughed merrily as they spun around and around. Eldarion cut in half-way through and Legolas sat down next to Aragorn, laughing, "Your daughter has spirit, mellonin." {My friend.}  
  
Aragorn considered this and asked carefully, "What is she to you, Legolas?"  
  
Legolas answered casually, "A sweet child. A niece."  
  
Aragorn nodded and sighed, a look of worry on his face.  
  
"Mani naa ta, mellonin?" {What is it, my friend?} Legolas asked.  
  
With a deep breathe, Aragorn stood saying, "Let us take a walk. Perhaps the air will help us both."  
  
Legolas still wore a confused façade as he and his friend wandered through the outdoors and into the gardens. The elf realized that whenever he was in Gondor he usually wound up in these gardens.  
  
"Mellonin," Aragorn began, "something grave has come to my attention. I need the complete untainted truth from you."  
  
Legolas nodded his consent solemnly, wondering what this was about, "Of course, Estel."  
  
The king let a deep breathe out and looked at the elf in the eyes. Not as a friend to a friend but as a father to a potential suitor. "Legolas." He said sternly, "It has come to be known to the Queen and I through a highly reliable source that earlier you met a daughter of mine in the gardens. True?"  
  
"Uma." {Yes.}  
  
"Which daughter?"  
  
"Leyadriel."  
  
"Explain what happened."  
  
"Leyadriel was upset and I comforted her."  
  
"*How* did you comfort her?"  
  
"I held her as she cried."  
  
"And?"  
  
"Kai." {Nothing.}  
  
"You did not kiss her?"  
  
"I did but just her cheek."  
  
Aragorn turned his back to Legolas and scowled, "I am confused as to whom to believe on this subject Legolas. Elaren saw you two together and led Arwen and I to believe that your relationship is not as innocent as you claim. However, I would love to believe you that my daughter's relationship to you has remained chaste."  
  
"I can assure you that we are not in a romantic relationship."  
  
"What about just a sexual relationship?"  
  
"Estel?!" Legolas could not believe his ears.  
  
"Neither of you are innocents, you have had an intimate friendship for years, and you are both beautiful. Tis the way of the elves and you cannot deny that, I have seen it first hand do not forget Legolas. Elaren's story is believable. But you are both honorable and close to me and I have never seen signs of intimacy beyond what you claim to be. But you are both masters of deceit to old, fading human eyes."  
  
"You can trust me, mellonin." {My friend.}  
  
Aragorn again sighed, "Tis a reasonable situation. Especially with your past....But I know I can trust you."  
  
Though Aragorn's last sentence should have comforted him, the first two sentences were a stab to his loyalty to the king.  
  
"What do you mean, Estel?" He asked sharply, "Of a reasonable situation? Of my past?"  
  
Aragorn sat on a chair, a bench actually, and Legolas entertained the idea of simply claiming the bench and rose bush as his and Leyadriel's.  
  
"Everyone says Leyadriel looks like Arwen. I saw it in her when she was born, very much like my Undomiel. What do you think?"  
  
Though his words might burden him later, an elf cannot lie regarding beauty, which they hold dear to their hearts.  
  
"Leyadriel is far more beautiful than any I have known. Indeed she more than does justice to the blood in her veins of Galadriel and of Arwen the Undomiel. Your daughter's beauty is far superior to her mother's."  
  
"I would expect you word on them both to be expert." Aragorn snorted.  
  
"What does that mean?" Legolas snapped.  
  
"I know you and Arwen were lovers, Legolas. I know that you held her in your arms for over two hundred years! Longer than I could dare dream to hold her! Many who do not even know her even a fraction as well as you proclaim her beauty unsurpassable. Yet you, who know her far better then even I perhaps, forsake her face for her daughter's! Give me one reason, one solid reason, why I should believe that you do not *know* Leyadriel as you know Arwen!"  
  
"**Knew** Arwen." Legolas corrected damn near seething in anger, "Arwen and I were young when our affair took place and 'twas a short lived one no matter how long it may seem to you. Remember that. You know Arwen better then I ever shall. As for Leyadriel, I have ever been an uncle and a friend to her. I know you are her father Aragorn, but she is an elf. Do remember Imladrision {son of Imladris} that elvish friendships are intimate. Just because I hold her does not mean I sleep with her. I am hurt and appalled that you would suspect of me, Estel. You have known me for longer than I have known her."  
  
Aragorn nodded at his words, absorbing them. He did not hear the footsteps behind him, Legolas scarcely did, and neither saw Leyadriel creep up and listen to what her father said, "Forgive me, Legolas, for suspecting you of unchaste actions with my elfling. I just worry for her. She seems incapable of defending herself these days. I know you protect her and care for her, my mind simply assumed there was more. I am only a father trying to make sure his little girl isn't being hurt in any way."  
  
"Adar!" {Father!} The cry came directly *after* a dagger had lodged itself into the bark of a distant tree with a lock of Aragorn's hair attached to it. "I can defend myself, Adar. Can you?" {Father.}  
  
A/N- okay if I don't stop there my hand will fall off. Where's Pengwaith, that son of a bitch? Naughty Elaren! Have any of you ever thrown a honed dagger at your father's head when he talked about you behind your back? Would you like to? Comments, questions, anything! Please??? 


	14. Anger leads to action

A/N- Le is slightly pissed off. Hehehehe  
  
Chapter 14- Anger leads to actions  
  
Leyadriel went up and pulled out her dagger, catching her father's hair before throwing it in his face. She looked at Legolas and her anger softened and she leaned in, her cleavage in full view for both males. Leyadriel brushed her lips against Legolas' cheek as a sign she did not hold him responsible for her anger at her father.  
  
Then she pointed her dagger at the two and said, "Too many people think I am a sniveling babe incapable of lifting a finger either defense or offense. That changes now."  
  
The look in her eyes was crazed and she walked off. Elf and man looked at each other and went after her, no good could come of that look in her eye. She was walking faster and faster until the other two were running to keep up. Legolas saw where she was heading.  
  
"Estel, she's heading towards the army registry!"  
  
"Ai! Elbereth! Stop her, Legolas, stop her!"  
  
Legolas sped up but when he caught her it was too late..she had already signed up for the Gondorian army.  
  
***Later that Night***  
  
Arwen's hand was her pillow, her hair a mess, her eyes bloodshot from crying. Aragorn she had locked out of their bedroom, he could sleep in the stables for the next few days for all she cared.  
  
'She's going. She's going. My baby is going. His words made her go, my husband, her father, made her go. How dare he say those things! My baby! My daughter! My little girl! She marches towards Death.' Arwen thought.  
  
The Evenstar's grace had been marred by her grief and distress at the news that her elfling, her only elfling, was going to be a soldier. She had gotten on her knees and pleaded with Leyadriel, begged for her to not go.  
  
"Must your pride be your death?" She had cried.  
  
"My pride is yours and that of all the elves, mother. You know that. Why disgrace it with spoken rumors of such weakness that does not exist? I shall go and I shall return no more marred then I was when I was a child."  
  
"You are still a child! Still my child! Do not go, daughter, please do not go!"  
  
Leyadriel had bowed her head sadly and whispered, "I am sorry that I cannot obey you mother. I truly am."  
  
Now, even remembering the words they exchanged, Arwen felt like her baby was stabbing her. Felt like her only pride and joy was killing her. Arwen looked into her mirror and saw a ghostly reflection of mortality facing her. Leyadriel was her last attachment to the world of the Eldar, the only fruit of her loins that had the gift and curse of the Elves. Her Leyadriel was beautiful and regal, powerful and strong with wisdom buried inside her she had yet to discover....but she had such a great pride for her elvish blood and such a sense of her crown and the responsibility that came with that crown that she would not allow any to speak ill of it. The Eldar would not have a 'weak' queen.  
  
'Damn the pride I gave her with that blood.' Arwen cursed herself, cursed her husband, cursed her veins and cursed Elbereth for allowing this, curse it all.  
  
At the same time, in a different part of the castle someone else was contemplating Leyadriel's choice...  
  
The elf prince was lying in his bed, staring at the ceiling, 'I should've stopped her sooner, should've gotten to her sooner.'  
  
"Why didn't you?" A voice asked.  
  
"Why didn't I what?" He replied.  
  
"Stop me." The form of Leyadriel stepped from the shadows of his balcony into his room. He felt a little conscious of his body under his silk sheets. He felt very conscious Leyadriel's body, scantily clad in her night dress.  
  
"Why didn't you, Legolas?"  
  
He sighed and looked at her again. She looked so beautiful, so grown up. Her hair was loose and in midnight waves, her eyes were bright and her curves were shown by her silken night gown of forest green. The color suited her well; it emphasized her eyes and face more.  
  
"Are you going to answer or are you going to stare?"  
  
She was beautiful, his pen mir {little jewel}. Only now did he realize how grown up she was. Now she sat on the edge of his bed, waiting for an answer. He stroked her scarred cheek, an action he had adopted around her knowing it made her feel less marred and more loved, and he thought, 'She doesn't even know the world yet. She has her wings but has not yet used them. That isn't fair for she longs to.'  
  
Then he finally answered her, "Part of me wanted you to spread your pretty wings and fly."  
  
She smiled and embraced him, lightly kissing his cheek, "Diolla lle." {Thank you.}  
  
"You're quite welcome, pen mir." {Little jewel}He replied kissing her cheek in return, "But please don't fly too far."  
  
"I don't have to worry about that. I'm elven; they'll assign me to your group. You won't let me fly too far."  
  
Little did they know that Elaren was listening at the door and was not pleased.  
  
A/N- I don't care about the book too much, if you haven't realized I've already screwed half of Lego's book life up so please don't tell me that he didn't lead an army group because in my fic he does, Dammit! And a realize that the only action their getting is cheek kissing but, haven't you noticed that they frequently kiss each other cheek's? And isn't Elaren getting just slightly annoying? Find out more in the next chapter..dun dun dun. 


	15. Sibling Rivalry

A/N- I would like to say that I love you guys a lot, but I wanted you to know, that my updating has been frequent because most of this story has been handwritten for months...we are approaching fast the end of those handwritten pages which means I have to type the words off the top of my head which means that updates will be less frequent but they will be there!  
  
Chapter 15- Sibling rivalry  
  
Leyadriel snuck back to her own room after her little meeting in Legolas'. She was quiet but she was also followed. The she-elf was humming softly to herself as she slid between her covers; it was an old lullaby her mother used to sing to her:  
  
Nai hi du na quant-lalaith Nai hi ithil na quant-loth a wilwarin Nai hi elenath na quant-aman laurea alph Nai hi moth na quant-bale mel.  
  
{May it be the night is filled with laughter, May it be the moon is filled with blossoms and butterflies, May it be the stars are filled with blessed golden swans, May it be the dusk is with deep love.}  
  
Then Leyadriel picked up some paper and paints and laid them over her covers. She did not intend on sleeping this night for she did not want new marks that would need tending. It was a system she had created over the years, elves did not need sleep every night and so Leyadriel went for as long as her humanity would allow her to without sleep. She would paint or write or sing, sometimes she would read. Most times she would just think or fantasize about different things. Once she decided to tend all the rips and tears in her dresses and training uniforms...since she had left that to her servants, a painful night of finger prick after finger prick told Leyadriel to leave sewing to those who knew how to sew.  
  
A shadow flickered in the corner of her room and a light step could be heard.  
  
"Elaren." Leyadriel cooed knowingly, "Please go to sleep, sister, or you will be tired come morning."  
  
A growl-like call emitted from the shadow and the door slammed loudly behind the princess. Leyadriel's brow furrowed and she quickly put her painting supplies on her desk and hurried after Elaren. She was curious why her sister was upset. Her elvish ears could hear her sister's now heavy footfalls easily.  
  
"Elaren!" She called out but not too loudly for she did not desire to wake up the rest of the household, when the blonde did not cease Leyadriel ran after her.  
  
But the slamming of Leyadriel's door had woken Legolas, who now followed Leyadriel with the sole concern of her well being. So the one pursuing was also being pursued.  
  
Elaren ran into her room and shut the door, she paused a moment to catch her breath before locking the wooden barrier between her and the rest of her home. Yet, that one breath pause was enough, her sister had managed to get into the room without being heard or seen.  
  
"Are you alright, sister?" Leyadriel asked, concerned.  
  
Elaren replied, "N'uma." {No.}  
  
"Mani naa ta?" Leyadriel put a hand on her sister's shoulder only to have it shrugged off. The she-elf looked at her sister and then at her hand and wondered what was wrong.  
  
"Im delotha lle." {I hate you.} Elaren said and she opened the door screaming, "Im delotha lle! Im delotha lle!" {I hate you! I hate you!}  
  
Leyadriel was very hurt by her sister's words, she felt like she had somehow failed her baby sister. Legolas came up behind her, he saw the pain in her eyes and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. She jumped at first, but then relaxed into him and listened to him as he cooed, "She doesn't hate you, pen mir, she doesn't hate you."  
  
He walked her back to her room as she listened to more comforting words muttered into her ear. At her door he put two fingers under her chin and looked into her eyes for more signs of hurt and found them sharing their space with confusion.  
  
"Thank you for your help, mellon. I will be fine on my own." She told him and he nodded and kissed her hand.  
  
"You still seem upset, I won't leave you to that alone, mellon."  
  
And with that he her led her into her room. She watched as he wrapped another robe around her and she took in the sight of him in her closet, her room bathed in the moonlight. She thought he looked quite appealing, but then again the stable hands were looking appealing as well. Ever since Pengwaith had disappeared she had been lonely and easily depressed. He had, apparently, run away after escaping form Aragorn's guards to try and save himself the humiliation of being caught by them again. She looked at Legolas again and managed to suppress a whimper of desire; she pushed all overly-friendly thoughts to the corner of her mind. Other matters had to be attended to, like why her sister suddenly hated her.  
  
Leyadriel sulked around her room for the rest of the night. She reminisced past times between her and her blonde sister. She remembered when they used to go into their mother's closet and try on her clothes before parading around the palace. Once they had double teamed Eldarion and dressed him up like a she-elf, father had not been too impressed but mother laughed hysterically. Leyadriel remembered when her mother had been expecting Elaren, the elfling would put her hand up against her mother's stomach everyday to say hello and good-bye to her sister, to feel if she had moved and to simply assure herself that the baby was indeed inside her mother and seemed to be content.  
  
A/N- sorry for the short chapter! Life has been EXTREMELY hectic and I just didn't have the time. Also check out a fic that is being co-written by my friend and I under the penname: Vardaparmawen And please review! *puppy eyes* 


	16. Food Fight

A/N- I'm sorry for the delay's and the short chapters, time has not been on my side! I don't own LOTR BTW- the name Silmarwen was suggested for the "un-named middle child" and I loved it so..I used it, hope you don't mind that I did!  
  
Chapter 16- Food fighting  
  
Legolas had stayed in Leyadriel's bedroom with her before leaving at her request; she wanted some time alone to really think about why Elaren hated her so much. The only reason Leyadriel could think of was if Elaren had seen her sister coming out of Legolas' chambers and had misinterpreted things again. The she-elf decided that breaking her fast would allow her have far more accurate thought, and so she dressed and headed down to the dining room.  
  
Her mother, still slightly teary-eyed, met her half-way down the hall and joined her for breakfast. Aragorn and Eldarion, Arwen explained, had eaten early and gone hunting, which was well because Arwen had no desire to see her husband at this moment. Though she was surprised that Galaniel, the youngest child and the one fondly called the Ranger-daughter, had not gone. When Arwen and Leyadriel entered the dining room they were alone, something they did not mind terribly.  
  
Mother and daughter proceeded to take their time alone to consume a few elvish delicacies. Foods that were too sweet and rich for most of the other children. Arwen noticed that Leyadriel was taking little pleasure in her food and was instead deep in thought.  
  
"Mani naa ta, Leyadriel?" {What is it?} Arwen asked, worried tenfold for her daughter then she had ever been before.  
  
"Elaren delotha nin." {Elaren hates me.} Leyadriel looked into her lap in shame.  
  
"Ya delotha lle?" {Who hates you?} Arwen asked, thinking she had misheard for surely her daughters would not hate each other.  
  
"Elaren." Arwen was shocked to hear the name.  
  
"You must be mistaken, iel. Your sister does *not* hate you." {daughter.} Arwen said matter-of-factly as much to convince herself as to convince Leyadriel, but her elfling shook her head sadly.  
  
"N'uma, atar, Elaren delotha nin." {No, mother, Elaren hates me.} The raven haired daughter replied morosely.  
  
Arwen was about to comfort her daughter when Elaren walked into the hall, dressed magnificently with her chin raised proudly in the air. A cry of "Pheidan!" came from a lovesick human that she slammed the door on.  
  
"Actually I do hate her mother." Elaren commented as though merely discussing the weather. The "Pheidan" took a seat a distance from her family and proceeded to greedily consume a fair amount of the elvish delights that were laid out.  
  
Just as her mother was about to pull one of the overly sweet desserts from Elaren, Celebrene walked in with Silmarwen and the two middle daughters took a seat next to their Elaren and began chatting happily with their mother and eldest sister.  
  
Elaren had always overly overjoyed elvish delicacies even to the point where she made herself sick. Also, elvish food tends to be extremely fattening and sweet because elves did not gain weight in excess nor did their teeth rotted out. Elaren was missing two molars that had been rotted beyond repair and she had a little over a handful of excess fat around her middle.  
  
Arwen pulled a tart away from her fair headed child but before Elaren could even pout her sister's began to talk to her. She ignored the talk, however and just sat there looking upset that her mother had stopped her from eating one of her favorite pastries. Then the "Pheidan" put a hand over her tummy and said, "I feel sick."  
  
Celebrene put a hand on her sister's shoulder and replied, "It is a simply the over richness in the food, Elaren, your stomach cannot handle it."  
  
Elaren pulled away from her angrily, "What do you mean tis too rich?"  
  
"Tis Elvish food, sister." Celebrene reminded her older sister.  
  
"Why should that matter?!" Elaren snapped, "I am Pheidan." {Translates to Half-Elven remember}  
  
She said the last part with her pretty nose high in the air. Her mother and sisters exchanged glances of worry and care before Leyadriel said as gently as possible, "You are *not* a Pheidan, Elaren. Lee naa fir." {You are mortal.}  
  
Elaren screamed angrily and slapped Leyadriel sharply across the face. Arwen pushed the two away from each other shouting, "Daro! Daro!" {Stop! Stop!}  
  
"Im Pheidan, atar!" {Im Half-Elven, mother!} Elaren screamed stubbornly looking to her mother for support.  
  
"Lle naa fir, Elaren! Vana hiril...fir. N'uma Pheidan." {You are mortal, Elaren! A beautiful lady....mortal. Not Half-Elven.} Arwen cooed commandingly, wishing not to hurt her child but not to give in to the girl's tantrum.  
  
The "Pheidan" slapped her mother and tried to run away but Leyadriel caught her sister's wrist in an iron grip and yelled, "DARO! That is enough!" {STOP!}  
  
Elaren pulled her arm from Leyadriel and screamed at the top of her lungs, "No! Enough was when Sauron came back for his ring! This is WAR my *Perfect* *Elven-Queen* SISTER!"  
  
With that Elaren slammed the door closed and kept screaming curses in frustration as she stomped up to her room, nursing an injured pride.  
  
"Mani marte, atar?" Leyadriel asked. {What happened, mother?}  
  
"Im uuma sinta, Leyadriel. Im uume sinta." {I do not know, Leyadriel. I do not know.} Arwen shook her head softly...  
  
When Aragorn returned home, he found his palace and his family in shambles. Elaren had made a wreck of everything that was between the dining hall and her room, which she had locked herself in. From inside that room the sound of vases and glass breaking was heard alongside screaming and crying and a grand tantrum. Leyadriel had the mark of a hand on her face, as did Arwen, and he quickly learned that his flaxen headed cherub was to blame. Elaren had always been short tempered and stubborn but he and his wife had spoiled her nonetheless; they had been so happy that she was not condemned to dream of scars and bruises.  
  
"Arwen, what is going on? I leave a peaceful home and come back to a war!"  
  
With a frustrated sigh that was just as full of anguish she replied, "Elaren decided to throw a tantrum at her sisters and I during breakfast. Apparently she hates Leyadriel for numerous reasons and she also thinks she's an elf, which I remind you she has thought since infancy."  
  
"That is no fault of mine." Aragorn retorted, "You and Leyadriel always doted on her and spoiled her and surrounded her with elven things! Why would she not think she was elven?"  
  
"You were raised in an elvish home and you do not have the mental complex that you are an elf! And do NOT you DARE to say that her spoiling is all mine and my daughter's fault! I was not responsible for, on Elaren's 6th birthday, giving her the prize stallion of Lord Eomer's mare! Nor am I to blame for the two dozen silk dresses ordered from Prince Imrahil's weavers! And was I responsible for the---"  
  
"You've made your point!" He cut her off, "Just tell me who said what and why!"  
  
"Elaren was making a pig of herself with the elvish foods Leyadriel and I were eating, completely ignoring the human food around her, and nearly made herself sick. Celebrene suggested that it may be because the food was too rich for her because she was human and Elaren just snapped. Are you happy?"  
  
He huffed, "Must Celebrene always be so blunt!"  
  
"It was not just Celebrene who mentioned it but also I and Leyadriel."  
  
"And you to aren't blunt?"  
  
"Don't you *dare* Estel or so help me you will be sleeping in the barn holding yourself and wailing like a babe!"  
  
The threats and insults of frustration went on and on until past the setting sun and eventually the two were running out of breathe. Arwen had cried several times and Estel had an aching head and simply wished to retire to a bed that did not need to be shared with the horses.  
  
"We should talk this out with them." He said softly, "It will not be solved if they are left to their own devices; Elaren could hold a grudge for years."  
  
"I agree, a talk must be held. Hopefully we can make them forgive and forget."  
  
"Where are they, anyway?" Aragorn suddenly looked like a worried father as he realized that he had been home for hours and arguing with his wife in the same spot for hours and had not yet seen not heard any child spare the distant fit his third child was throwing.  
  
Arwen suppressed a yawn, the day had taken its toll on the Evenstar, "Elaren is in her room, Eldarion is in the kitchens eating I presume, Celebrene and Silmarwen were huddled in Celebrene's room the last time I saw them and I wouldn't be surprised if Galaniel were riding her horse still; its where she always is when the other's feud, out of the way."  
  
Aragorn could hardly believe that she knew all of that information and he couldn't even remember what say it was, he supposed that all mothers had a sixth sense of sorts, they always knew where their children were. However, there was one child she had not named, "And where would our elfling be?"  
  
"Asleep I would think, or resting in her room at least. She had little rest last night and the night before and the days events have taken their toll on her."  
  
Suddenly, a scream echoed through the palace and Arwen looked up to the stairs that led to the rooms of her children, "She's asleep."  
  
They rushed upstairs, even after all of these years, whenever Leyadriel's dreams took her they were just as frightened and bewildered as the first time. When they got to her door Aragorn went to open it....but found it locked.  
  
"What is this? She never locks her door?" He muttered before he heard it inside, a cackling laughter.  
  
Eldarion stormed out of his room, food stains were on his shirt so he had been eating, but not in the dining hall as Arwen had presumed.  
  
"Adar! Ta naa Elaren. She went in and apparently locked the door behind her. I can hear them in there...we must get in." He told his father. {Father! It is Elaren.}  
  
Aragorn and Eldarion combined their strength and pushed through the door to see Leyadriel's upper body hanging off of her bed, her eyes were still closed and she was dreaming. There was a gash of about 6 inches across her breastbone and there was blood coming from her mouth, Elaren was watching from a chair rather passively spare for the occasional laugh.  
  
"Ya naa fir, sii'?" {Who is mortal now?} She sneered before pushing past her stunned family into her own room and locking the door behind her, laughing melodiously. Arwen rushed to Leyadriel as Eldarion went to fetch the nurses that would tend her wounds. Aragorn knelt beside his wife and daughter and the scene from a moment ago replayed in his mind.  
  
Elaren still, he concluded, did not fully understand her sister's condition.  
  
A/N- denial, it's the first step, lol. Sorry its been so long since an update, things have gotten really hectic. I am very sorry. 


	17. Memories

A/N- Thank you for all the wonderful reviews! I would like to announce that we are now closing the poll for your favorite scene and that the one that won was.....Legolas and Leyadriel (when she was young) by their rose bush. Awwww, I like that scene. We will try to get it up soon but remember that school comes b4 fanfics.  
  
Chapter 17- Memories  
  
Elaren was cold hearted to her sister for a long time after that day. The war the "Pheidan" created lasted well past her crowning two years later.....  
  
*Two years later Elaren's crowning to take place*  
  
Loud clashes of metal on metal could be heard. Two figures stood fighting without protection of any kind but their swords. One could easily see the two elves were tiring, they had been sparring for two hours straight.  
  
Leyadriel went to block a thrust of Legolas' before putting her blade over his throat.  
  
"Met." {End.} She panted.  
  
"Quel, pen miramin." {Good, my little jewel.} Legolas nodded to her, "Just remember, I still outscore you in archery."  
  
She took the comment as a chastisement and rebutted, "Why must you work me so hard? I can beat our top generals!"  
  
"They are mortal, you still have difficulty against elves."  
  
"What elves will be fighting against me? I am their queen." Leyadriel pointed out.  
  
"Orcs are from elves and you shall be fighting them, Hin, so I shall train you until you are fit." {Child.}  
  
"Daro essa nin Hin! Im n'uma hin, Legolas! Remember that." She snapped and took a drink from a skin at her feet.  
  
Legolas had taken to calling her young things like "Hin" {Child} or "Pen." {Little.} or "young one" {Pen neth.} and his favorite "Little jewel." {Pen mir} ever since she had signed her name on the army regiment. Aragorn had begged the elf to train her as she wouldn't allow her father to any longer. He elf had agreed and only then did he realize how young she was. The elf well remembered Helm's Deep and all the children warriors that were slaughtered. He did not want that to happen to his little jewel. Whenever he looked at her he could still see that bright-eyed laughing child; though she had erased almost all remains of that child from her, judging on what could be seen now.  
  
Leyadriel picked up her sword, a gift from her mother that was long and sleek with gold and pale blue vines winding up from hilt to tip. It was light and deadly with a finer point then a razor. That was not an innocent child but instead a deadly assassin.  
  
"If you're not pleased with my skill, let us spar again, Taren." {Prince.}  
  
There was anger behind her azure eyes as smart as a whip that tore at his flesh. Nonetheless he picked up his sword, then placed it down in favor of his white knives.  
  
"Let's try your skill against two blades, tarien." {Princess.}  
  
He intended on meeting her fire with flame. Just as her heated offense began a messenger came from the palace and bid them stop.  
  
"Why should we stop?" Leyadriel asked.  
  
"The Lady of the Hour claims the noise pains her ears and bids the Prince to come indoors to prepare for the feast."  
  
"You may tell me sister that she cannot possibly hear our practice for we are on the outskirts of the palace where even elvish ears would be deaf to our actions." Leyadriel replied, agitated at the brat her sister had bloomed into.  
  
"And tell her I need not yet prepare for a ceremony that is in three hours time." Legolas added, he had hoped every time he ventured near to the palace that Elaren would loose her attraction for him. But every time she pursued him as hotly as before. It was becoming a great annoyance.  
  
The messenger's eye twitched and he did not leave. Leyadriel looked at him expectantly, "Is there anything else?"  
  
"The Pheidan has sent this for you, Princess Leyadriel." He handed Leyadriel a paper with the Telcontar royal seal and Leyadriel ripped through the sheet and read:  
  
I know how you would reply to my request so I will reply accordingly. My ears cannot her you but my heart can and I must say that the racket of your bodice unlacing and your body slamming against the ground hurts my ears. I realize that since your lord fled you and went into hiding from our father that you are lonely but that gives you no right to lift up your skirts to my own lord. Please fix your hair and straighten your clothing and leave my prince alone.  
  
-The Pheidan Elaren  
  
Leyadriel let out an enraged animal-like growl from her throat. The messenger fled in fear, not wanting to be on the receiving end of her anger. Legolas looked a bit surprised that Leyadriel's calm had disappeared; she had become quite fond of her calm façade since signing to the army.  
  
"Mani naa ta?" {What is it?} He asked.  
  
With a huff of disapproval she handed him Elaren's letter. As he read it the tips of his ears tinged red and his voice shook in anger, "There is only so much of her childish games one can take."  
  
Leyadriel grabbed the letter back with a grunt and marched towards the palace. Legolas grabbed her arm and said, "Leave it alone for now, Leyadriel, she's just a child."  
  
"She's no more a child then I was at that age." Leyadriel countered, "She cannot be allowed to act like this."  
  
Memories came back to Legolas of bruises from Pengwaith covering her lower back. Suddenly he recalled the events that had taken place last year. After a rainstorm had stranded Leyadriel and Legolas in Ithilien after training, she had made a confession to him, one she did not want repeated to her parents.....  
  
***Flashback***  
  
The rain was beating down on the earth mercilessly, the two elves were soaked to the bone and had retreated indoors when they could no longer keep their footing on the training field. They were in Ithilien where Legolas had Leyadriel focus on archery, she greatly improved with the concentrated atmosphere of talented elven archer's surrounding her.  
  
Leyadriel was pulling a comb through her long hair with some difficulty. All of her curls had knotted together into a big, black, wet mass and her comb was getting stuck. After letting a lovely string of curses, she threw the comb down and glared at it, her raven locks were in a tangled web. Legolas set his own comb down and laughed at the look on her face.  
  
"Mani naa ta?" {what is it?} She asked with a pout.  
  
"You're glaring at a comb." He replied.  
  
"It's not doing its job."  
  
He walked over to her and picked up her comb and purred, "You have to learn patience Leyadriel."  
  
She gave him a dramatic pout as he began to glide the comb through her hair. When he reached an obstacle slowly and gently unknotted it until her entire head was smooth and silky.  
  
Leyadriel ran amazed fingers through her hair and awed, "Diolla lle, it has never been so smooth before." {Thank you.}  
  
Legolas smiled at her affectionately, "Creosolle, pen miramin." {Your welcome, my little jewel.}  
  
She wrapped her arms around herself, her wet clothes making the skin it contacted with cold. He saw this and spoke, "Ringlle." {Your cold.}  
  
"Uma." {Yes.}  
  
"I'll get you some dry clothes." He left the room in search of warm, dry clothes for Leyadriel.  
  
Shortly after he returned with a nightdress which he presented to her. She cocked an eyebrow at him questioningly.  
  
"Who is in your life?"  
  
He made a suggestive face and lifted and eyebrow, leaning in as if to tell her a secret, "Well......I'm not going to tell you." He teased.  
  
Legolas laughed as she playfully begged and pleaded with a pout and big eyes to know, then he said, "If you must know....my sister. That's my sister's dress that she left here."  
  
Leyadriel looked slightly disappointed, "Oh, I was hoping for a more scandalous answer."  
  
He spun her in a circle and dipped her as if they were dancing, "Scandalous? Did you think I had some poor she-elf chained to my bedroom wall pining for me for months at a time while I'm with you in Gondor? Nay, my sister and you are the only two prominent women in my life."  
  
In a sympathetic motion, she cupped his cheek in her hand, "Tis unfortunate. You would make some she-elf very happy."  
  
Legolas' joy faded slightly, remembering the times when he was an elfling and his mother would say the same things to him.....then he lost her. He motioned for Leyadriel to change so that she wouldn't see the distance in his eyes. Elves are not shy about their bodies nor others' bodies. Leyadriel, still standing in front of Legolas, just shrugged her dress a little lower on her shoulders and began unlacing it.  
  
The fabric was thick and rich velvet in the color of a deep red; it fell from her body to reveal her snow colored skin. His eyes fixed on her body unconsciously and he felt a warmth stir flow through him. Her hips accented her small waist and her slim legs that were smooth as glass, he could see a few small scars but mostly just what seemed like inhumanly flawless pale skin that promised softness to an admirer. Her raven hair contrasted with that skin almost painfully, and not just the hair on her head but also the hair at her core or womanhood that he became well aware of suddenly. Without knowing his desire she slipped into the gold and green nightdress bearing the emblem of Mirkwood royalty and giving Legolas a feeling of possession over her; she was after all presently wearing his colors and his leaf and it was a sense of pride that she had woken in him. She looked stunning when she lifted her head to meet his gaze.  
  
"Lle naa ikotane vanima." {You are so beautiful.} He muttered trying to control the urge that was growing inside of him.  
  
She blushed beautifully, adding just a hint of rose to those dove white cheeks, "If that is so, then you are the only one who ever sees it."  
  
He cocked an eyebrow at her urging her to continue and she did, "Pengwaith used to say I looked more like a woman then a she-elf. He said my body and face were an eyesore to most....but not him. He said he loved me..at first I believed him. At least I thought I loved him as well.....but his kind of love isn't love, it's more like rape. But I suppose he couldn't rape the willing, I was just so eager to find love. I suppose that he only ever truly desired his pleasure....he never truly desired me, did he?"  
  
Legolas encased her in his arms as he answered, "It is easy for any man to want your body, to love what they believe to be the most you can offer. Your body is a beauteous thing to behold, but you have a radiant heart that would be quite the treasure for any man to possess."  
  
"I don't want a man," She pushed her head against his chest softly, "Men are hurtful and cruel. I would much rather an elf, much rather that caliber of understanding and care."  
  
"We elves are like men in many ways that you don't understand miramin." {My jewel.} Legolas thought of the bolt of lust that had passed through him a few moments earlier, he thought of times when he had violently ripped a she- elf's clothing from her body just to taste her flesh and take from her a night's pleasure.  
  
She looked into his eyes and said, "I understand that no elf has ever hurt me and that is all that any man does. I do not want to be hurt anymore."  
  
"Shh, shh." He cooed, leaning in so that his forehead touched her's, "No one in their right mind would hurt you, miramin." {My jewel.}  
  
Leyadriel put her arms around his neck and whispered, "*You* are the only one that's never hurt me."  
  
In a moment of vulnerability, the princess leaned forward and her lips gently connected with the prince's. His arms moved onto her waist and he fell into the kiss for a moment, he pushed lightly against the contact before realizing who he was kissing: the girl he had once claimed as a niece. He ended the motion slowly and gently put his hands around her neck so she couldn't push forward again, "You are right, Leyadriel, I would never hurt you. That is why we must stop here."  
  
A fog slowly cleared from her eyes and she processed what he said and slowly nodded, accepting what he said and for the rest of the night they talked and held each other. When the morning came, Leyadriel put her clothes on before she and Legolas traveled Gondor....but this time Legolas had kept his back turned while she changed and he felt like such a child for acting that way.  
  
***End Flashback***  
  
In the next chapter.....Leyadriel and Elaren, possibly a confrontation? And what else has happened in the past: *Beware* there are a lot of flashbacks to be had in the near future..review please? 


	18. What had happened

A/N- Again, sorry for the delay. But I have good news, between writing new chappys for Leyadriel and living; I have attempted to begin my own website with Orli based fan fics as well as the Legolas ones and a Star Wars one and also a few based on Ned Kelly and Pirates of the Caribbean (I'm excited I hope you guys are!) and I will tell everyone when its fully up!  
  
Chapter 18- What was hidden  
  
Leyadriel missed Legolas distant look of reminiscing and stormed off towards the palace. Legolas came back to the present and ran after his friend with the hope that he could calm her before she did something she would regret. Normally the princess had excellent patience with children, had very caring maternal instincts but two years of hellish behavior from her sister was wearing her patience to the quick.  
  
Legolas stopped Leyadriel and commended her, "Gain your calm, tarien, or you shall act as foolish as she." {Princess.}  
  
"How do you know that?" She snapped.  
  
"It's in your personality. You can take much until someone pushes you over your limit then you are rash now settle yourself."  
  
Leyadriel saw in his eyes the memory of that night two years ago when she signed up for the army after a fight with her father. She sobered immediately well knowing how painful that was for her family and friends to remember...except Elaren who eagerly awaited her sister's departure.  
  
"It wasn't just anger at my father that propelled my actions that eve, Legolas. I am not so thick as to let my anger rule me."  
  
"You have never mentioned alternate motives before." Legolas pried, curious and happy that her anger against Elaren had been redirected else she kill her sister.  
  
"I am caged as long as I remain here. The war is in my blood as is a Ranger and they would have never let me free. They are fearful of allowing me leave...I just needed to show them that they couldn't hold me here forever. My anger at adar just gave me the bravery to sign the paper." {Father.}  
  
Legolas saw in her this bundle of life that wasn't being allowed to live because it was restrained inside of her. She touched his cheek as the realization came to him then continued walking to the palace to deal with her sister.  
  
Her anger had cooled somewhat during the interlude with Legolas but now she was marching towards the palace intent on confronting Elaren.  
  
She took a deep breath, hoping to handle this like an adult and not a spoiled child who was not getting her way. Calmly, Leyadriel knocked on her sister's door and heard her call, "Ya naa ta?" {Who is it?}  
  
"Leyadriel. I come in peace, Elaren, let me enter."  
  
The door slowly unlocked as if Elaren was reluctant to do so. When the she- elf walked in she couldn't find the "Pheidan" near the doorway.  
  
"Elaren? Manke naa lle?" {Where are you?}  
  
"Why do you care, elf?" She retorted hotly, appearing from the shadows behind the door.  
  
Leyadriel had wanted to be civilized but she had not counted on Elaren making that so difficult.  
  
"Sister I want to talk like adults, like civilized people, if that is possible." Leyadriel began but Elaren snuffed.  
  
"Tis impossible. Whores are not civilized people, Leyadriel."  
  
Leyadriel's anger at the comment made her cry, "Then pause in your passion and speak to me for a moment!!"  
  
Elaren's cheeks flamed red at the comment. It was well known that she would take any admirer into her bed for a night for a she well enjoyed the pleasure. Elaren considered it searching for a man where as everyone else saw it as sleeping around.  
  
"I am NOT the one who is sleeping with her sister's lover behind her back!" Elaren screamed, she was half dressed and was obviously already getting dressed for her crowning which would not take place for three hours at best.  
  
The she-elf laughed maliciously and sneered, "Please don't tell me that with your extensive knowledge of sex you can't even properly define a lover! Listen closely you ignorant child, in order for Legolas to be your lover, you two would've had to have had a sexual experience. And I will repeat myself in saying that I am NOT sleeping with Legolas! Be sure that next time you open that considerable mouth of your's you know what it is you speak of, Elaren!"  
  
The "Pheidan" smiled evilly, "I like how you defined lover and keeping that in mind I will again claim Legolas as my lover."  
  
"The sexual experience I used to define lover has to have happened in real life, not in your over active imagination."  
  
"I still claim him as my lover."  
  
The she-elf scoffed, "He would never make love to you if he wouldn't even....."  
  
Elaren raised her eyebrows happily as is she had trapped her sister, "If he wouldn't even what? Can you not admit it? Can you not say it?"  
  
Leyadriel's eyes were big as she realized how her sentence would have ended. Her mouth was open in awe she slid out of Elaren's room and put her back against the door as she slowly fell to the floor.  
  
"If he wouldn't even kiss me...." The words fell from her lips and she felt Elaren's words regarding Legolas; they stung her like winter's ice and tears bit at her. She got up from the floor and ran to Legolas' chambers to see if he was there. When he opened the door she pushed him inside and locked the door behind them.  
  
"Is it true?" She demanded as tears came down her face, "Is it true!"  
  
He placed his hands on her shoulder, trying to calm her but she shook them off.  
  
"Is it true?!"  
  
"Is what true?" Legolas was baffled and his face looked like child facing a something incomprehensible.  
  
"You and Elaren! Tell me what happened between you!"  
  
He looked like a frightened deer and he took one of her hands in both of his and kissed it gently, "Sit down if you wish to here it but I assure you it is probably not what she would say."  
  
Leyadriel sat down next to him and could only managed to say, "Why have you kept this from me? I thought we trusted each other, Legolas. Why did you not tell me of something between yourself and my sister?"  
  
"It was truly nothing I thought you would wish to hear."  
  
"Just tell me every detail and I will tell you if I do not wish to hear them."  
  
He took a breath and told her everything as he remembered it.....  
  
A/N- I realize it's short, but doesn't it just leave you wondering?? What did happen? Can anyone guess? Maybe, if you all behave well and eat all your vegis, maybe I'll let you have dessert....I mean another chappy. 


	19. Bitch in Heat

A/N- I guess that you've all eaten enough vegis...here's your dessert! BTW ***IMPORTANT*** I am a poet and I intend on publishing my poetry and the poems and lullabys in all of this book are mind to back up off them aight? They are MINE.  
  
Also, I am truly sorry for all the delays but they won't be stopping for a while. After April 5 I should have more time, again really sorry for the delay.  
  
Chapter 19- A Bitch in Heat ***Flashback***  
  
Elaren had been allowed to visit Ithilien shortly after her "breakfast tantrum" because Aragorn and Arwen thought it would be wise to separate their feuding children for a time. Legolas would have preferred the daughter that was not infatuated with him but he respected the Telcontar's choice.  
  
"Creoso Elaren Telcontar." {Welcome.} He bowed to her.  
  
"Diolla lle Taren Legolas." {Thank you Prince Legolas.} She returned the gesture.  
  
As she rose from her bow she held cut her hand for a kiss which he gave her, then he led her to the dining hall and bid her refresh herself.  
  
"Manke daro lle cel?" {Where are you going?} She asked with a hungry eye.  
  
"Sammathamin-esse." {In my chambers.}  
  
Elaren smiled and nodded and headed into the dining room. He was not completely comfortable in that smile but ignored it and went to his room. Legolas sat at his desk and dipped his quill in ink before setting it on paper.  
  
No matter what I try to see  
  
The darkness surrounds pools of blue  
  
And draws my gaze into their depths  
  
No matter what I try to be  
  
My body always wars my mind  
  
And commands my animalistic self let out  
  
No matter if I try to shield  
  
Those haunting orbs from my sight  
  
As soon as the sun sets all I see  
  
Are two Blue Eyes At Night  
  
It's all in vain my would be strength  
  
When the stars blanket the sky  
  
And the sun shines no more  
  
For the Blue Moon radiates far more  
  
And it breaks itself in two  
  
Before resting in your eyes,  
  
Of Blue.  
  
Allow me, I beg, serenity  
  
From the rush and flow of my emotions  
  
Which ebb just like the sea  
  
And close those twins for just a night  
  
That I might sleep for this time  
  
Without the ocean of your Eyes.  
  
(COPYRIGHT OF ME)  
  
He set down his quill and looked over the free verse wondering why he wrote it. From behind him the door opened and shut and the sound of a lock clicked. Legolas turned his head to meet the intruder who put a slender finger to her lips.  
  
"Shhhhh."  
  
"Elaren? What are you doing here?" He rose from his seat and crossed the room to stand in front of her.  
  
"I am doing what I please." She said before rushing forward to kiss him, her lips exploring his hungrily. In her he could taste potent wine and confidence as she shrugged out of her dress and stood so that all of her body was exposed to him. His gaze fogged over in lust and he didn't even see her form his body just responded to her nudity. He advanced a step and held her head in his hands in a breathless kiss. Legolas paused for a breath and saw that pale golden hair in his hand and Elaren's face suddenly came into view with swollen lips from his kiss.  
  
His eyes widened as they took in her naked breasts that were heavily breathing and her unclothed body that was ready and willing for him. He was aware and ashamed of the erection that was beginning and forced himself to calm down and realize that he did not want Elaren. There was no denying that he wanted the sex, his body ached to do this for it had been a time since he had laid someone down but only his body desired the "Pheidan", the rest of him did not. Legolas pulled away from her.  
  
"Amin hiraetha." {I'm sorry.}  
  
"Im-u." {I'm not.} Elaren pushed the elf prince against a wall and violently kissed him, her tongue pushing past his lips to rape his mouth. He was caught off guard by this and was so distracted by her kiss that he could not prevent her hand from snaking down his body and grasping him fully in her hand. Legolas gasped against her mouth as she stroked him and petted him and did things with her hands he had long since experienced. Elaren then released his lips and moved her mouth to his now engorged shaft. He was panting and his knees were weak, he was not capable of stopping her now.  
  
Elaren kneeled before him and prepared to take him in her mouth but before she did, a gentle breeze came from the midnight sky into the room. The tender whisper just barely touched the flushed elf's lips. The sweet succulent tease from the wisp reminded him of a gentle kiss; it was trusting and yielding and promised softness. Brief was that breeze and he found himself desiring more of it. For a moment he remembered the feel of Elaren's rough kiss and he wanted that gentle one more then ever. Suddenly, as if it were a bolt of lightening illuminating a dark plain, Legolas knew the one person who promised such a kiss.  
  
The realization dawned on him and stunned him so that he roughly pushed Elaren's body away from him. She looked at him with a deep hunger and pushed him to the floor. With the surprise that had taken him, he just let her have her fun, his mind was concentrating on the truth he had discovered. Elaren led a trail of kisses from his chest to his shaft and took it in her mouth deeply. He barely recognized that it was Elaren for there was only one face in his mind and he was so focused on it that Elaren's face and body belonged to his dream. His hips bucked forward as he pulsed in her mouth and he felt himself draw closer and closer to a release that ached to come forth.  
  
With a last flick of her tongue Elaren undid him and he poured forth a hot essence in her mouth which she drank eagerly as though she were a starving babe on her mother's breast.  
  
Legolas sat spent on his floor, only half dressed, and in a ragged state panting like a dog. Elaren was flushed but looked at him longingly as she strattled him and made to kiss him, wanting more and more like a bitch in heat. He put a finger to her lips to make her pause a moment but she merely batted it away and continued. In his frustration at her wanton ways he shoved her from him and pulled his pants back over his length. With a swift motion of his hands he smoothed over his wrinkled clothes and looked at her sternly.  
  
"Elaren!" Legolas snapped and she looked at him slightly confused.  
  
"Mani lle merna a'nin?" {What do you want of me?} She asked suggestively.  
  
"Cel." {Go away.}  
  
"A'?" {And?} She urged him pressing her breasts against him.  
  
"A'kai." {And nothing.} He stated simply, "Cel sii'!" {Go away now!}  
  
She shrugged her shoulders as she put her dress back on and as she went out the door called back nonchalantly, "Sii' lle merna nin ner, Legolas." {Now you will want me more, Legolas.}  
  
He wished to retort but she closed the door and escaped down the hall with a merry laugh of a victorious slut. Legolas shook his head at what had happened and who it had happened with. His heart was pounding in his chest even though his face was calm and pensive.  
  
'It was a fluke.' He figured, 'A moment of folly caused by a moment of passion.'  
  
He needed a clear mind and a calm heart so he picked up his poem from before and read it. Suddenly a new inspiration took him and he took a fresh piece of parchment and picked up his quill:  
  
When it rains it always pours In this fake world of ours And so the rain persuades our minds To ignore love's ordinary signs When it snows it always hails And all love's sights all fail And show to one their love's bloom And they forever hunger that they can't consume When it rains it always pours a tender life for my lonely love.  
  
He read the first line and put the paper down, his mind flew with words he wished to pen and he picked up a clean sheet and dipped his quill deep in the ink:  
  
My darling! My love! Blue are your deep eyes Soft is your young touch And Pale as snow is your fair skin....  
  
I would beg you leave the land that bore you, Spare that the age of your heart is far Younger Then your fair face....  
  
Would I leave the trees that weaned me? And Wait a few more lonely years To test the waters of those sea-blue eyes Just to be undone by their rough waters?  
  
With a breath he put the quill down and glanced over his works and was disappointed by the form that the words had taken but was pleased with the words themselves. With a sigh he wondered why he wondered why he had formed them that way, he wondered why he had been thinking of her. Legolas wondered where she was and what she was doing, he stared at his ceiling contemplating the possibilities. But no matter what he thought about, he always returned to her face.  
  
"Leyadriel." He breathed.  
  
It was nearly dawn before he rid his mind of thoughts of her.  
  
***End Flashback***  
  
A/N- THE POEMS ARE MINE they are NOT to be used AT ALL. Thank you...what do you guys think? Do you like? Yes, I agree that Elaren disserves to be burned at the stake but she really is necessary for my plot line (which shall remain a secret). I've gotten into a poem fetish recently so a lot of poems will be included. 


	20. New Forms of Torture

A/N- Again, the use of any and all poetry in this story is mine unless otherwise specified and you guys MAY NOT AT ALL use it. I love all the wonderful reviews you guys sent me and since one of you helped me with the name of Le's sister, maybe you guys can send me ideas for human soldiers in Leyadriel's groupy thing. Please? If you give me names I'll give you another chapter.  
  
Again, sorry for the delay, My schedule is a complete nightmare. Btw- if you guys put your emails on your reviews I will 9 times out of 10 email you, I am even trying (trying but having trouble succeeding) putting together one of those mail out update things.  
  
On another note (sorry for the notes but for those of you that read them it helps me to communicate) I have a Star Wars story that no one has read (or at least reviewed) at all and if you enjoy Star Wars and you like my writing I suggest reading it. Also my friend Tainted Elf and I are writing together under the penname Vardaparmawen so check out our fic (a Legomance involving Haldir's sister, I promise it has a twist)  
  
Chapter 20- New forms of torture  
  
**Later that night, after he told her about him and Elaren**  
  
Leyadriel was laying in her bed and contemplating sleep, she was wondering whether or not she was tired enough to fall into torture. Her eyes were wide open but nonetheless her fatigue caused her to slowly feel the conscious world slipping away and turning to a waking dream....  
  
Darkness took the world before her inch by inch until the entire scene was a void of black. Red began to stain the ground as the sky turned painfully gray. This was the world of the Dead that she had come to know almost as well as her own bedroom. There was no smell in here spare for decay and blood that had been black when it had been running through wicked veins. Small dots in the distance slowly approached and grew into looming shadows of life, if 'alive' they ever truly had been.  
  
They were sneering at her, glaring at her and they resembled hunter's stalking prey...which wasn't far from the truth. Ever since the first dream with them, Leyadriel always had the distinct impression that she was tied down every time she entered this world; she could never move and her wrists and ankles would always ache when she woke as if they'd been tied tightly. Sometimes they were even discolored as if the circulation to them had been cut off.  
  
The shadows looked her over and one licked his lips ravenously, "She-elf."  
  
He took a club out, a dark wooden bat that she knew to be heavy and rough surfaced, and motioned for the others to come nearer to him. They all drew forward and loomed over her ominously. One had greenish gray skin and a few long tendrils of greasy gray hair still clinging to his scalp, he wrapped both his hands around her waist and said to her, "So good to see you again, she-elf."  
  
That's what they called her, 'she-elf' as though it were a foul curse and she hated the way her race was treated by them both in life and beyond. In response she spit in his face. He shook his head and said, "You will eventually warm up to us, she-elf. You will learn that to give in is far easier then to struggle."  
  
"Never." She growled at him. He pounced on her and pinned her to the ground.  
  
"I beg to differ." The goblin pushed her legs open violently and shoved her nightdress up past her hips. Shock ran through Leyadriel, this was something they had never done to her in the past for to orcs and goblins the elves are a foul race that are not even good enough to be used as whores; a fact she had been thankful of and a fact that had kept her from their greatest torture until now.  
  
As he thrust violently in and out of her she closed her eyes as tightly as they could possibly be closed and envisioned a different face and body filling her; just so it would be *anything* *anyone* except the horrible reality that she was with. The face that she thought of, however, she forced from her mind and replaced it with one of Pengwaith, who had abandoned her for his own hide. Pengwaith's lovemaking was much like this, rough, violent and leaving her bloody and bruised and she well remembered the physical and emotional pain of the whole experience.  
  
The first face she had thought of was too kind and gentle to be placed with such a violent event. It was too beautiful to be placed in such ugliness. She would not bring Legolas into this world of shadow, blood and torture. She hissed in pain as her rapist ran a sharp claw down her soft stomach. He thrust sharply into her and she felt blood flow down her inner thigh at his violence. With clawed hands he grabbed her breasts and this time she screamed at the lashes that appeared. Leyadriel tried to push him off over and over again to no avail.  
  
She was trapped at his mercy until he was finish with her, he put a kiss to her lips and bit the bottom one enough to make it bleed. Her scream was muffled by his mouth, but even so it attracted attention....  
  
Legolas heard the screams of Leyadriel at night; he had long since grown accustomed to them no matter how much he hated them but he knew that something was different about this scream. Curious and worried about her he got up and went to her room. The scene that met him shocked him to his core:  
  
Leyadriel's bed sheets were thrown on the floor and her dress was pushed up to her hips and pulled down to her waist at the same time exposing her breasts and her center, both of which were a bloody mess. Her body was moving as if she were making love but the movements were forced and he knew she was being raped. Her lip and face were bloody and she was whimpering in pain and misery.  
  
His pity for her tripled in seeing this. He knew she was not a virgin, a fact he accepted as a natural part of her life that was bound to happen. But he was sorry that her virginity was lost in the manner it was, and also that she had only known love like that bastard Pengwaith's.  
  
He watched with a great burden on his heart as she twisted and convulsed in agony before a sudden ceasing came to her. Legolas rushed to her side as she woke, sitting on the side of her bed and trying to help her stop the bleeding. Her cheeks were flushed with embarrassment at her present state and at the knowledge that he had seen far more then just her waking moments.  
  
Gently he pressed a clothe from her bedside to her mouth to stay the bite on it. His eyes caught on her lips, full and swollen and even with their injury still soft. Then she cleared her throat and motioned to her breasts that were still bleeding. He nodded and she lifted her ragged dress over her head and was completely naked before him. With soft strokes he gently cleared blood and grime from the princess' breasts.  
  
In the depths of his adulthood he felt desire stir, he was only half clad and she was nude. Albeit she was bloodied and hurt but her beauty could not be hidden by it. He focused on the task at hand and rubbed a clean cloth over her snowy mounds. Then the cloth dropped from his grasp to the bed and his hands moved of their own accord and cupped her breasts in his hands and she pushed into them slightly relishing in the feel of soft warm hands and not cold claws. She had wiped most of the blood from her body and the throbbing between her thighs was pushed to the back of her mind.  
  
His mind was incoherent and his instincts led him to lean forward and meet her lips. The feel of them was heavenly, a feeling she returned by pressing her lips back, returning his kiss. Legolas savored her sweetness for a moment before he was met by a few drops of blood on his lips, the cut she had received was bleeding again. The taste of the blood was bitter and made him see the situation he was in. He moved his hands from her breasts to her waist and slowly ended the contact.  
  
When he pulled away she looked at him wondering why he had withdrawn from her, "Mani naa ta, Legolas?" {What is it, Legolas?}  
  
"I refuse to hurt you, pen miramin." {My little jewel.}He cooed.  
  
"You haven't."  
  
He used his thumb to wipe a last drop of blood from the cut on her lips, "I already have."  
  
Leyadriel pulled away from his touch and looked away from his face, "I wonder now, after your confession, if you are trying not to harm me or just playing my innocently until you find me in Elaren's position."  
  
"How dare you!" He stood up sharply.  
  
"How dare I what?" She stood to meet his gaze with her own.  
  
With a last look at her beautiful eyes his anger cooled, "Say, let alone think, that I would ever treat you as a whore."  
  
Any fire in her iced and she looked at the ground and squeaked, "Amin hiraetha, mellon." {I'm sorry, friend.}  
  
He wrapped in an apologetic embrace and put a soft kiss by her ear, "Ta naa tereva, pen mir." {It is fine, little jewel.}  
  
She nodded and pulled a fresh nightdress from her closet and put it on. Legolas made to leave but she put a hand on his arm and asked, "Do you remember years ago when we were dancing on the balcony and I asked you to teach me our waltz's words?"  
  
"Uma." {Yes.}  
  
"Will you...sii'?" {now}  
  
Legolas smiled at the look in her eyes as she asked. Half of her wanted him near her, the other half simply did not wish to be alone so that her mind would dwell on the night's events. "Of course, I'll be back in a moment."  
  
He disappeared for a moment and returned with his torso covered. Leyadriel had been brushing her hair when he returned. He snuck up behind her and took her brush as he gently hummed the melody of the song in her ear.  
  
Leyadriel smiled and hummed along for a time as he brushed her raven locks free of knots. When he set the brush down he put a white rose behind her ear before helping her up and spun her around as if they were dancing to a band. A melodious laugh passed her lips and he found himself unable to resist joining in.  
  
"Mani dona lye?" {What are they?} She asked, curiosity sparkling in her eyes.  
  
He smiled at her and continued turning her around and about in a slow waltz. She closed her eyes and felt the motion of the dance, then she heard his silky voice in her ear:  
  
Dare I venture to ask if you see  
  
When we are in a crowded room  
  
If you can still see me?  
  
Do I want to know if you know  
  
That when we planned our life together  
  
You realized we'd grow?  
  
Am I bold enough to ask  
  
If you truly understand  
  
That our youth will pass?  
  
When I look at you, each time,  
  
I wonder if you've accepted  
  
That my heart and soul aren't mine?  
  
But then I start to wonder that if I have to ask  
  
Does that mean that we  
  
Are doomed to never last?  
  
And then I begin to fantasize of a single night of peace  
  
And I begin to wonder  
  
Will our battles never cease?  
  
Dare I dare to ask you (fearing the cutting of our ties)  
  
If all love is as our love  
  
Lust in a bed of lie.  
  
Dare I take the breath to ask you today  
  
Would you even weep  
  
Should Death fly me away?  
  
What if I inquired this very eve  
  
If I never came back to you  
  
Would you even grieve?  
  
Perhaps, should I take this as a sign  
  
That my soul mate may be  
  
Waiting on a different line?  
  
But if I have to ask you I'll already know  
  
By that heartless look in your eyes  
  
That my 'yes' is your 'no'.  
  
So when I approached you to ask, dear,  
  
As you shattered my faith with a sigh  
  
Could you not even shed a convincing tear?  
  
And now I sit here alone  
  
And ponder when we ended  
  
When the light in your eyes no longer shone  
  
Then as I look at our past (which I know like the back of my hand)  
  
I saw, much to my dismay,  
  
We never really began!  
  
So I pushed our memories as far back as they could go  
  
And wallowed in my loneliness  
  
Nearly drowning in my sorrow  
  
Then I was staring at the bottom of agony's treacherous cup,  
  
And sank to the bottom of the pool of despair  
  
Until a kind hand pulled me up.  
  
A savior smoothed my brow and whispered gently  
  
'Dearest dove why would you leave life?  
  
Tis an ill adventure, can't you see?'  
  
And I looked at my rescuer and was amazed  
  
For ne'er had I seen such beauty  
  
There within my gaze  
  
'Now that I know that life contains  
  
Such a loving entity  
  
I surely shall remain.'  
  
And they smiled at me and graced my lips  
  
With the sweetest honey  
  
Of a kiss  
  
Then I clasped their hand against my heart  
  
Claiming like a madman  
  
'I shall die if we must part!'  
  
With a smile on their face and a sigh upon their breath  
  
They said to me, 'Ah love! I found thee,  
  
So much fairer then the rest!'  
  
I quickly claimed their lips and sighed,  
  
'If you can't be my entire life,  
  
I would rather die.'  
  
So I dared to ask this beauty  
  
What I ne'er asked of you  
  
To be the breath in my lungs and the waves upon my sea.  
  
And this question I was not afraid to ask,  
  
For my past experience with you,  
  
I left buried in the past.  
  
Then I look at the horizon and my true love at my side  
  
And I know I'm not fortune's fool  
  
My heart is my own to abide.  
  
*Again this poem/song is mine*  
  
"Tis beautiful....so very beautiful." Leyadriel said as he finished singing. A tear shone in her eye but did not fall, "Who is it of?"  
  
"No one knows of who just of what. It was of a man who thought the loved a woman who never returned his love and when he tries to take his life because of his loneliness and pain he discovers true love with a woman who sees him in his despair and helps him."  
  
Leyadriel just sat quietly and absorbed the song and its meaning. Then she began to sing it softly and her clear voice made the sadness and sweetness of the song weave a tapestry in the air. As she sang she sank back onto her soft bed, which was all black to hide the blood stains that they often acquired, and as the last note danced from her lips a sob came so softly that it was a whisper to even elvish ears.  
  
"Mani naa ta, pen miramin?" {What is it, my little gem?} He asked as he lay next to her, looking into her blue eyes which were glittering with her tears in the dark of the night.  
  
"Will you tell me the truth?"  
  
"Of course." He promised.  
  
"Did Elaren mean anything to you? Anything at all?"  
  
"No, nothing. If she did I would've gone to her crowning earlier."  
  
"And not done a few other things?" She barely spoke the words.  
  
He didn't say anything in response to her words but a blush appeared on his cheeks and he only stood from her bed and cleared his throat.  
  
"Speaking of doing other things...when you stormed off to talk to Elaren a messenger found me from Ithilien. That's why I was in my chambers, I was preparing for it."  
  
"For what?" Leyadriel was confused.  
  
"The war order has come at last. I am told to bring my group to the lines within a fort night. With the day and nights event I neglected to tell you for you were upset, but now I must emphasize a point to you Leyadriel."  
  
"Uma." {Yes.}  
  
"What happened between us was truly an act of consolence and cannot happen again nor be spoken of else we are both removed from our military positions. Is that understood?"  
  
Leyadriel frowned and nodded numbly, she was a little shocked at the sharpness of Legolas' tone. That was the first time in her knowing him that he had been more like a strict teacher with a sharp whip then a caring friend.  
  
He events from earlier suddenly came back to her and she had to keep in mind Legolas' words...that all his actions were out of consolence.  
  
A/N- hmmm...would anyone out there like to know just what kind of actions?? Hmm? Maybe in the next chappy...if any reviews inspire me to write more. 


	21. Consoling and Commanding

A/N- Hey, I'm still looking for names of *human* soldiers for Lego and Le's lil' army group thing. I'm really sorry about leaving you guys out of the war thing, when the story is in my head it's not the same as when I type it. But here's lookin' at you kids: Btw- this chappy is a little fluffly, if you catch my drift!  
  
This has been the chapter from hell  
  
Chapter 21- Consoling and Commanding  
  
*What had happened earlier* ** Flashback to what had happened right after Legolas had told her what had happened with him and Elaren but before she was dream-raped**  
  
After he had told her about what Elaren and he had done she wouldn't let him get another word in before she just bolted out of his room.  
  
"Leyadriel." He cried as he ran after her. She ran faster than he could, she ran out of the palace and disappeared into the gardens. He could no longer track her through the twists and turns of the bushes and trees but he didn't need to; he knew deep in his heart where she was going. Legolas headed toward their bench and their rose bush, for it couldn't be labeled as anything else but theirs now, they spent so much time here together.  
  
Upon arriving there he could see his she-elf. She was weeping on the ground beside the white roses and was bathed in the moonlight. The silver glow made her look like a glass doll, her hair reflected the light in such a way that she seemed to carry the moon itself inside her and it was radiating from within her. Her face and arms looked as pale as a dove's creamy feathers and the only thing that made the vision wrong was her sobbing.  
  
He came up quietly behind her, his heart shattering at knowing he had caused her this pain. He had once sworn to never do that and he had broken an oath he had made to himself, he felt like a complete failure.  
  
"I know your there." She managed to say.  
  
"And you do not try to flee me again?" He asked, kneeling just behind her.  
  
"What would the purpose of that be? You would only hunt me again."  
  
"I never hunt you, pen mir." {Little jewel.} He cooed, putting his arms around her and slowly coaxing her to lay against him instead of laying on the ground.  
  
She allowed herself to be positioned in his embrace, "Then what do you do to me?"  
  
"I try to take care of you."  
  
"I have parents for that purpose."  
  
"Sen' dona fir." {They are mortal.} He reminded her, "Who will look after you when they are gone?"  
  
"I will look after myself. I do not need the aid of a child molester."  
  
The words that came from her lips stung horribly but he let them. He knew she was angry and hurt and he let her fling all the insults at him that she needed the throw, let her push him into the barbs of her words and his actions until he could all but feel the blood of it running down his body to pool at his feet.  
  
"How could you let her?! How? Elaren would do anything *anything* to have you and you just gave into her! You just let her win with the force of one kiss? I cannot believe that you were ever that desperate for a wom- no- a whore's touch!"  
  
"I was not nor ever was. I highly doubt I ever shall be. Elaren meant nothing to me."  
  
"Then why did you let it happen?" Leyadriel screamed, "Why did you let it happen!?"  
  
She crumpled into a ball in his arms and he stroked her hair. She didn't want him to touch her, not after she found out what he had done but he was the only person she ever felt truly safe with, she needed the soothingness of his presence beside her.  
  
"Im ikotane hiraetha, pen miramin, ikotane hiraetha." {I am so sorry, my little jewel, so sorry.}  
  
"Being sorry cannot undo what you've done! The deeds of the past are irreversible or do you not know that yet, edhel?" {Elf.}  
  
Legolas bowed his head in shame before taking her face in his hands and making her look straight into his eyes, which were pleading for her to accept his words, "Anything that happened with Elaren was purely out of a lust that I both regret and need. By now you know the way of the elves is to take pleasure in beautiful things and so I indulged myself in the body, somewhat unwillingly, with Elaren," he paused to make his next words stand out, "but in the mind with you."  
  
Her eyes widened and her crying stopped so he continued, seeing that he had her attention, "You are so much dearer to me then she is. Lle naa ikotane vanima, ikotane silivren-ello ten'loth lle cheb." {You are so beautiful, so glittering white from the blossom you keep.}  
  
At that moment he traced the pale scar on her face from the corner of her eye to her collarbone and let his thumb run over her milky skin. The moment found their lips met in a soft whisper of a connection, a tender meeting that slowly grew. Leyadriel leaned into him and the sensations seeping into her were a sweet drug she began to crave. She allowed him to pass the boundary of her lips and taste the succulent recesses of her mouth. He pulled her closer to him and she pressed her hands against his chest and could easily feel his muscles through the fabric. Muscles earned from thousands of years of strict army training with and without his bow and from that weapon of his choice, his arms were particularly strong and promised fierce protection as well as a soft pillow for weary lovers. His tongue tickled her and she could not suppress a moan. Leyadriel pulled Legolas on top of her as she sank herself back onto the springy grass, right next to their rose bush which stood as a silent witness to their actions. He put a hand on either side of her head. His body was reacting far faster then his mind, his member was beginning to harden in response to her.  
  
His mind was reeling and his thoughts surprised him, 'Never has anything felt this good, never has anything felt this right. She is so sweet, so soft, so yielding to my touch. Such innocence....such youth....such beauty, such breathtaking beauty. Such vulnerability, never again will I hurt her nor allow anyone else to. This time I will keep that promise.'  
  
Then he realized where his thoughts were leading bolt struck him the depth of his feelings for his pen mir. {little jewel}  
  
'I love her.' He realized, 'I love her.'  
  
Happily he deepened the kiss more and tangled his fingers in his midnight locks; quite content that he had finally found love after nearly three thousand years of loneliness that begged to be cured. She wrapped her arms around his neck and battled his tongue with her own unsure of how she felt but craving more of this attention.  
  
The racket of a breaking twig sounded behind them and the melody of a song met their ears, it was the Lay of Luthien and it was being sung by Aragorn. The two quickly straightened themselves out and smoothed their clothing, Legolas finding it difficult to smooth over the bulge of his staff. He barely managed to soften himself and he knew it would ache him severely later.  
  
When Aragorn entered the clearing he could see through their casual façade with more then just a father's penetrating gaze.  
  
"Tis late, Leyadriel and Elaren's crowning is to take place in less then an hour. I would suggest you get ready."  
  
"My present to her is to not attend." Leyadriel responded with a glare at the mere thought of her sister.  
  
"Them go help your other sisters' dress, they at least love you." Her father was still loathe to accept that Elaren hated Leyadriel with a passage, "Sii' saes." {Now please.}  
  
"Mankoi sii'?" {Why now?} She asked not liking how her father was pushing her away.  
  
"Im quen yassen Legolas." {I wish to speak with Legolas.}  
  
Leyadriel raised her eyebrows, "A'?" {And?}  
  
"I would like to do it *alone*, iel." {Daughter.} He emphasized alone so that Leyadriel nodded reluctantly, turned and left.  
  
Legolas watched her as she walked away before turning his attention to her father.  
  
"You lied to me, Legolas." Aragorn's eyes were deadened and steely as he looked at the elf.  
  
"I don't understand what your saying, mellon." {Friend.} Legolas replied.  
  
"You lied to me when you told me the two of you weren't involved."  
  
"We weren't involved."  
  
"As in you were not but now are?" Aragorn's voice was angry and protective.  
  
"We're not involved."  
  
"Don't tell me your not together, I've been watching you since she ran from the palace." The King looked vicious and strong and was stalking up to the prince as if he were a hunter.  
  
Legolas straightened his back and looked at his friend for the first time as the father of a potential Princess of Mirkwood, "Leyadriel and I have been friends for a time and have had a few minor romantic moments one of which you've seen. I never realized until tonight how I felt for her. I lo- "  
  
"Stop there, Legolas. Don't say it, I couldn't bear to hear it pass your lips."  
  
Legolas cocked his head to one side, "Mani?" {What?}  
  
He had thought that Aragorn and Arwen would've been happy that Leyadriel would be with a good elven lord instead of a harsh human one.  
  
"Legolas you were a good friend and a trusted companion. Your honor as a lord and Prince always precede you but I will not allow you to have my daughter. Such a move would be disastrous for Leyadriel and I will not stand for it, ever."  
  
"U-mankoi?" {Why not?} Legolas rose his chin slightly, offended at Aragorn's words.  
  
"She hasn't told you? Something I'm sure she neglects to remember most of the time."  
  
"Mani?" {What?} Legolas near demanded, getting worried at the look in Aragorn's eyes. His heart clenched at the potential ill news of his pen mir (little jewel) but he would not feel a harsh blow too deeply yet for he had not claimed her aloud; but if there was something deathly wrong with her he knew he would surely part from this world when she did.  
  
"You were about to tell me something about your feelings for Leyadriel that would present her with a dire choice...."  
  
"Immortality or mortality? Aragorn if this is about Arwen and you...." Legolas sympathized.  
  
"Not only that is at stake. Leyadriel only carries her curse because she carries her elvish blood. If she were mortal she would not dream the way she does, her sleep would be undisturbed by demons. But mortality although her savior, would make her miserable. She would loose all remnants of her elvish life: her ears, her improved hearing, her improved sight, her immortality...she would loose her beauty," Legolas rolled his eyes; 'impossible,' he scoffed in thought, 'impossible.' But he did not speak this and Aragorn went on, "She would hate living without even her reflection for comfort or a reminder of her elvish blood. Leyadriel loves the intimacy and freedom of her elvendom, taking that from her would be a form of torture worse then what that she already suffers. But if she chooses immortality, where her heart lies, then we have no assurances that she would be relieved from her dreams. She would live eternally for peaceful days and tormented nights. My daughter would suffer forever if she chose immortality....I will not have her make that choice.....not even for you, mellon." {friend.}  
  
"Why would you not let her choose rather then linger as she is between both mortality and immortality?"  
  
"Because in the half state that she is in she at least has the ray of hope that she will fight this or that a cure might be found."  
  
"You cling to a savior that may not come at all, Aragorn. You may be harming her more then helping her."  
  
"Whether I am or not, she is my daughter to protect as I will."  
  
Legolas snorted, "Protecting your daughter is one thing, Aragorn, but sheltering her is another! You cannot prevent her choosing a life anymore then you can prevent her drawing a breath! This is folly!"  
  
"Possibly but this is my folly and my daughter.*Not yours.* True, I cannot prevent the choice but I can prolong the time it takes her to choose. I refuse to see another she-elf I love suffer because of my failings!"  
  
The King of Man was a strong, proud man but his anger at the Mirkwood Prince died and he simply broke down into tears. He fell to his knees and wept openly for all the grief and pain he had caused those he loved dearest, his wife and his children.  
  
"Arwen was once the embodiment of the elves. She was perfect. She was at peace with all of nature and beautiful beyond compare. She had the purest of hearts and always the best intentions. Never had I seen such a serene creature make my knees go weak with one glance. She was like a perfect mortal woman in form, there within my grasp was this perfect radiant woman. Yet behind her eyes laid nearly three thousand years more then I could ever hope to comprehend. Thousands of years worth of love and hate and patience and understanding and confusion and sheer life then I could ever hope to grasp. And this shining evening star loved me, and for me she fell from that grace and joined me, joined me in all that is crude and dark and always stained with the lurking shadow of Death and despair. Forsaking all that ever made her so happy as she once was. She says she is content in her life now, but I've seen that light in her eyes whither and die from the choice she made, I've seen my elf become mortal.  
  
"Then after I thought that we were finally happy, finally free from those past ills. My daughter, *our daughter* is presented with the same choice. Forgive for wanting to keep her free from the agony I see her mother suffer daily. The agony I see my wife suffer every day of her life, the life that she has left."  
  
Legolas was extremely touched by Aragorn's words and just let them sink in, he tried to imagine the guilt that Aragorn lived with...tried to imagine Arwen's pain and knew he could never comprehend it.  
  
A messenger came up to Legolas and Aragorn, a messenger that Legolas would later claim came earlier before the talk with Aragorn, a messenger bearing ill news.  
  
The letter simply demanded reinforcements. Ithilien had been warring with those few slaves of Mordor who remained since before Leyadriel's birth. But for some reason, the elves just no longer had the numbers sufficient enough to hold these foes at bay successfully any longer, too many were sailing. They were in desperate need of more troops. Aragorn glanced over the note and, drying his tears, nodded grimly.  
  
"Well, there is one choice I failed to prolongate. She will go then...go to war. To Death.."  
  
"Not Death." Legolas cut in, "Not Death."  
  
"I pray not." Aragorn closed his eyes to emphasize that hope in his heart, "I know you will not let that happen to her if it is in your power to prevent."  
  
Aragorn paused and thought about Legolas protecting his Leyadriel; watching her vigilantly day and night.  
  
And night?! Aragorn realized what would become of the two if he just let them leave to travel away unsupervised for months at a time. He realized that he would loose his little elfling to one who used to sleep with his wife... Needless to say he felt like he was playing second fiddle to the elven prince. But Aragorn had one more card to play: Legolas' loyalty to him as a friend.  
  
"Legolas, I must ask a favor of you. You must swear something to me on your honor as an elven lord and a dear friend of mine."  
  
"To anything you say I give my word."  
  
An almost devilish smile of success broke out on Aragorn's face as he said, "You will end every aspect of your relationship with my daughter that is intimate beyond friendship."  
  
Legolas' eyes widened but he knew it was too late to take back his word, especially from one as dear to him as Aragorn..but what about one as dear to him as Leyadriel?  
  
"Uma mellonamin." {Yes my friend.} He barely breathed as he felt his vision of Leyadriel under him yielding to his every desire turn black and vanish.  
  
**End Flashback**  
  
A/N- do you guys see where his "it was just me comforting you" speech came from? He was trying to be a good guy by NOT betraying his friend. THIS CHAPTER WAS A LIVING HELL TO WRITE SO I DO HOPE IT EXPLAINED A FEW THINGS. Review please, if I don't get any reviews I don't write any more chapters when I should be studying for biology... 


	22. Leaving Home Behind

A/N- All the bad weather has only served to give me weeks of highly concentrated games so I will be updating but it will be few and far between, the chappys may be short, etc. etc.  
  
***WINTER'S ROAR WAS SUCH A KIND REVIEWER AND MY MUSE FOR THIS CHAPTER!! THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!***  
  
Chapter 22- Leaving Home Behind  
  
Leyadriel was in her room painting. She let the brush create its own pattern of strokes and watched her picture evolve from the mass of colors it has begun as. She sighed contentedly before putting the brush down. She glanced around her room and even in the darkness could see everything: her bed still neatly made for she had taken no rest tonight, her window open and allowing the cool night breeze to circulate throughout the room, and a traveling pack on her bed with her sword, bow and quiver beside it.  
  
At dawn she was leaving to go fight in a war that was waged long before she was born.....really it was waged even before Legolas was born, or her mother..........this war was almost as old as Middle Earth itself and had acquainted itself with a good many of her ancestors, and now with herself. She was rather proud to be fighting in it, and rather glad to be free from the bars of her home.  
  
'Leyadriel' The wind hummed in her ear and a sudden caress of the air opened up a book on her nightstand and blew a few pages over. She got up from her painting and crossed to the book and smiled realizing what it was. Her journal.  
  
The breeze placed a gentle kiss on her cheek, after Galadriel had left sometimes little interludes like these occurred and Leyadriel was convinced that it was Galadriel communicating with her great-granddaughter.  
  
Leyadriel read the page that it book was opened up to:  
  
*I didn't think that time could weigh so heavily on my shoulders. I am only twelve years old, an infant in the reckoning of my people, and yet I feel the period of a month upon me heavily, in that time I will visit Ithilien for the first time. Legolas promised that I could ride horses and practice archery....as long as the borders were peaceful. I am so anxious to go though I do not know if that is for the solitude from my home (which can grow quite hectic with all the children running about and Eldarion tormenting me) or if it is the solitude with Legolas. I am very fond of him and always feel more like a princess around him then I ever do at home. He is always so kind to me and for some strange reason, just his presence is extremely comforting. He smells of rainwater and of old woods that have fermented in their wisdom and strength for many a millennia. I have always found such comfort in that scent and also in just his embrace. So often I find myself hugging my own body wishing it were those strong, sympathetic arms. He seems to know what I am going through, his words are cherished in my heart and above all else his smile, I make him smile but I rarely see it. I wonder what burden is upon him that he cannot spare a smile, especially one so brilliant as his.*  
  
Leyadriel smiled and remembered that day, she had been so excited about going to Ithilien that she nearly ran there on foot herself. Albeit the horses were much faster then she would've been.  
  
"Did you love him then, or is that a recent addition to your heart, sister?" A voice asked evilly.  
  
"I shall never understand you Elaren, you were such a nice child. What happened do you suppose?" Leyadriel snapped back, not in the mood for an argument with her sister at this moment. Suddenly all the air was sucked out of the room and everything in the world seemed to still.....and then the two siblings completely burst out at each other.  
  
"To me? Nothing compared to what became of you! My dear darling sister! Once so kind and courteous to me and now you are shamelessly chasing after the object of MY affections as though he would honestly touch you the way he touches me!"  
  
"He touched you once like one touches a cheap whore stained with the semen of her last client and the liquor of the past few nights of shameless money- making!"  
  
Elaren snuffed, "Like Pengwaith used to touch you?"  
  
Leyadriel took a step back, the shock of her former lover's name hitting her as though she were physically struck by the word. Elaren snarled wickedly at the she-elf's dismay.  
  
"Ah, so you do remember him? I am truly surprised that you would chase after Legolas the way you chased after Pengwaith, who was so afraid of our father's rage at him that he fled you without so much as a word."  
  
"Man-mani?" (Wha----What?) Leyadriel panted, trying to catch her breath as a million memories rushed her.  
  
""Going after someone as refined and well respected as the youngest Prince Of Mirkwood, one of the Nine Walkers, our father's best friend, our mother's former lover and trusted confident, Legolas Greenleaf," Elaren emphasized the greatness of the son of Thranduil, "after having been little more then Pengwaith's sexual play thing is an insult to his good name and good nature. If I am a whore in your eyes, what does that make you if he would touch me and then speak pretty words to you in apology before denying that those pretty words came from his mouth? Did it ever occur to you that he may just be securing a high position in court? After all, if and when you are crowned, you shall be his queen."  
  
Leyadriel fell to her knees, completely shocked for a moment and was simply absorbing the words her sister spoke, many of them emphasizing worries she already had, other words giving life to new worries. Suddenly a wave of anger overtook her. Who was Elaren, her younger sister and family black sleep, to tell her anything at all other then how to fall from grace?  
  
With a growl of a war-cry Leyadriel charged forth at Elaren and brought her to the ground before throwing her fist sharply against her sister's foul mouth. Elaren spit out blood before flinging her nails out and repeatedly slashing at Leyadriel's already scarred face. Leyadriel took Elaren's shoulders in her hands and kept pushing her against the hard ground over and over, both of their screams mingling in the night air and making it sound as though someone was being murdered.  
  
Eldarion was the first to arrive. He stepped through the doorway and saw specks of blood on the white marble floor and his younger sisters in a heated fight. His father was right behind him in an instant and as soon as the scene met Aragorn's eyes he rushed forward and pulled Leyadriel off the top of Elaren and yelled to Eldarion to hold back his fair headed sister.  
  
"DARO! DARO!" {STOP! STOP!} Aragorn yelled at the top of his lungs. His cries, along with those curses and shrieks Elaren and Leyadriel flung at each other while their battle was being denied them.  
  
Arwen came in first and let out a scream at the two bloodied girls on the floor, it took her several minutes to realize that they were two of her daughters. Silmarwen and Celebrene caem up behind their mother and just let the scene absorb itself into their systems but Galaniel dove right in and helped her father restrain Leyadriel who was far stronger, being an elf and a warrior, then Elaren or her father alone.  
  
"Calm yourself sister!" Silmarwen cried and Celebrene screamed, "Daro ta! Daro ta!" {Stop it! Stop it!}  
  
The raised voices had by this time roused half the palace from slumber. Legolas came to the crowded doorway to inquire what the noise was of, "Mani marte?" {What happened?}  
  
"Leyadriel a' Elaren." Arwen began but tears soon fell from her cheeks and she bowed her head, collapsing in Legolas' arms, "Elbereth! They were trying to kill each other, Legolas!"  
  
"I hardly think..." He began but was interrupted by Leyadriel's voice rising over all the commotion, "IF YOU EVER COME NEAR ME AGAIN I WILL FIX YOUR FACE SO THAT NO MAN"S WILL EVER LOOK UPON IT AGAIN SISTER!"  
  
Elaren replied in a similar tone, "YOU CANNOT POSSIBLY MAKE IT MORE HIDEOUS THEN THE MARKS YOU BARE!"  
  
These words were followed by scuffling sounds and a bark by Aragorn for Eldarion to hold tighter to Galaniel to hold tighter to Leyadriel else she escape.  
  
Arwen buried her head into Legolas' shoulder and he patted her lightly before moving to see the disturbance. Leyadriel and Elaren were both in a ragged state and glaring at each other with daggers for eyes and a disheveled Aragorn, Eldarion and Galaniel barely holding them apart. He stepped forward to help but Aragorn just snapped at him, "Go away, you've done enough!"  
  
Legolas was taken aback by the words but obeyed them, he returned to Arwen as she tried to compose herself as the scuffle inside began to die down. She opened her arms for an embrace that Legolas gave her, "I never thought that my daughters would be doing this. Where have I failed that they need to do this?" She begged him to answer.  
  
"You didn't fail, they were simply born to clash. It was not your doing, Undomiel." He cooed to her as he petted her hair comfortingly.  
  
She kissed his cheek, "Diolla lle, mellon. But that was not all too comforting." {Thank you, friend.}  
  
Just then, Elaren was being towed from Leyadriel's chambers by Eldarion, who was sporting numerous scratches on himself from pulling her back. With a look that signified she was needed, Arwen left to accompany Elaren and Eldarion, signaling Legolas with a flick of her hand and a grave shake of her head to just stay out of problems that were not his.  
  
Somewhat dejectedly he bowed his head and went back to his room, allowing the Telcontar Family to sort out their problems..  
  
*Same time in Leyadriel's quarters*  
  
Aragorn had refused, for the whole of his life, to hit a lady but he made an exception when his daughter began to resemble a rapid beast. The back of his hand connected solidly with the side of her face and as her head snapped back he shook her shoulders, "LEYADRIEL! Calm yourself!"  
  
She knew her father had hit her and then she actually felt the pain and she paused a minute to shake her head into clear thought and to make sure that she had not lost a tooth.  
  
"Tereva, ada!" {Fine, daddy!} She said in half disbelief, "Why did you hit me?"  
  
"Because you were acting like a rapid dog, you were a hazard to your sister, to me and to yourself."  
  
She frowned as she rubbed her sore face, "Still.."  
  
Galaniel put a comforting hand on her sister's shoulder, "What was that all about?"  
  
Leyadriel was still stuck on the fact that he father had struck her and responded, "What was what all about, Galaniel?"  
  
"Ada, maybe you hit her too hard. Why were you and Elaren fighting about??"  
  
Leyadriel sighed and rolled her big blue eyes, "It began about Legolas, but really it was just so many years of restraining that fight...it felt very good to get that out of me."  
  
"That felt good!" Aragorn echoed, "That felt good?! Who are you! Surely you are no daughter of mine! That was your sister you just attacked! And..."  
  
"Ada I hardly attacked her! We were clawing *each other's* eyes out! It was a mutual fight not one that I began!" Leyadriel spat in to defend herself.  
  
"I do NOT CARE who started it! You two nearly killed each other just now! Does it mean nothing to you that your sister's blood is staining your floor?"  
  
"Elaren's? I feel badly that she is so self absorbed and ignorant and that those qualities cause her an injury but I do not feel remorse at having been the one to give her those injuries."  
  
"THAT IS DISPICABLE LEYADRIEL TELCONTAR!" Aragorn roared, "Do you mean to tell me that you could spill the blood that runs through your veins as surely as her's and not feel even a little guilty? Would you feel the same way about Galaniel? Atarlle? Nin?" {Your mother, me?}  
  
Leyadriel looked horrified at the thought and put a protective arm around Galaniel promising, "Of course not! Im meleth lle!" {I love you!}  
  
"A' lle uume meleth Elaren?" {And you do not love Elaren?}  
  
Leyadriel made her gaze steely, "N'uma..u-sii'. I used to love her more then life but now she has chosen to forsake my love, and I hers." {No.....not now.}  
  
Aragorn's face was red with rage, "WHAT HAS SHE DONE TO YOU? YELL AT YOU? INSULT YOU? LUST AFTER YOUR FRIEND AND COMPLAIN THAT HE PAYS YOU MORE HEED THEN SHE? THESE ARE NOT GRAND OFFENCES, HIN!" {Child!}  
  
She stood up face to face with her father and fully intended on giving him back what he gave her, "AND WHAT IF I THINK IT IS? WHAT IF I AM SICK AND TIRED OF ELAREN INSULTING ME AND ANGERING ME AND BEING RUDE TO ME AND THROWING HERSELF SHAMELESSLY ON MY DEAREST FRIEND WHEN HE IS NOT INTERESTED IN HER SO MUCH AS DISGUSTED? WHAT IF I AM SICK AND TIRED OF WATCHING ELAREN ESCAPE SCOLDING FOR HER WANTON WAYS WHILE I MUST SUFFER A PUNIHSMENT FOR EVERY MISSTEP? SHE HAS THROWN HER LAST BARB AT ME, ADAR! HER FOOLISH WAR AGAINST ME ENDS NOW!"  
  
Aragorn and Galaniel were taken aback by Leyadriel's words but in different ways; Galaniel was astonished to the point where she could not think of anything except the words her sister had just screamed but Aragorn was completely fuming and he sent Galaniel from the room sharply. Once his youngest child was gone he delivered a swift blow to his elfling's scarred cheek, a blow that caused her mouth to bleed and her inner lip to cut, "That's for blasphemy."  
  
"What was so wicked about what I said when I spoke the truth?!" Leyadriel responded slowly, pronouncing every word and keeping her eyes on er father's hands so that she might dodge a third strike.  
  
"Every syllable from your mouth was poison and I wish you could've swallowed them!"  
  
The room went completely dead and the two bored each other's eyes into one another so violently that a lesser men would've flinched.  
  
"All love between us is dead, Aragorn." Leyadriel said in a whisper and she saw the intense hurt rise in Aragorn's eyes before she literally threw him from her room and locked the door. She screamed like an enraged animal and then took a shoe on the floor and threw it through the window, shattering the glass in the pane. Then she looked at her reflection and it seemed to her that her scars stood out more painfully then ever before and she picked up a vase and broke her mirror, sending the shards from both objects flying to the ground.  
  
She let out a cry of frustration, but just outside the door her father took it as a cry of pain and told Galaniel to get Eldarion.  
  
"He'll be able to talk enough sense into her that she won't hurt herself. Quickly!"  
  
Galaniel took off like a deer and sprinted to Elaren's rooms were the blonde imp was milking her bloodied state for all that it was worth with her head in her mother's lap and Eldarion cooing to her from one side.  
  
"Eldarion!" When her brother looked up she ran over to him and panted, "Adar anta lle, sii'!" {Father needs you!}  
  
Eldarion nodded and left at a furious pace, upon arriving he saw his father sitting on the floor outside of Leyadriel's chambers wincing as glass kept shattering from inside the door.  
  
"Ada?" {Dad?} He asked cautiously, he had never seen his father in such a state.  
  
"She's inside, she's locked me out and I am afraid she will hurt herself. She is unstable right now...I need you to talk some sense into her, restrain at least."  
  
Eldarion nodded and stepped up to his younger sister's door and knocked, "Leyadriel?? Leyadriel? Pen neth, saes, ta nin, Eldarion." {Little one, please, it's me, Eldarion.}  
  
The door opened with a slow creak and as soon as Eldarion was in it was slammed shut behind him and the shadow of his sister crept passed him and walked crookedly towards the shattered mirror.  
  
"Leyadriel? Mani marte?" {What happened?} He asked, concerned.  
  
"My life is miserable."  
  
"How can that be?" He led her to the edge of her bed and made her sit, then he stroked her hair.  
  
"I can not find solace in this place...I have to leave at dawn one way or another. There is too much hatred for me here and this place is too small to make it comfortable to live with."  
  
He kissed her temple and said, "There is far more love for you here then there is hatred, remember that little sister."  
  
She hugged her brother for a pregnant moment before pulling away and pushing a stray curl from his face. She smiled at him though it was small and a bit faded from the one he remembered. Eldarion saw her scar, the one from her eye to her collarbone, and felt a ghost slash an identical wound in his face. He saw the slight puffiness under her eyes carrying a violet taint from all the nights of her life she had gone without sleep, which he imagined well totaled over a two year period. He saw behind her eyes the glitter of freedom and realized that in trying to compensate for her handicap, he and his parents had kept her well confined for the whole of her life. It had never been something she had complained about...but then she had never complained about much. That was a trait he admired about his little sister, she could have the weight of the world on her shoulders and she would not raise a single syllable in complaint. He pulled her closer for another embrace. Eldarion had, to Leyadriel at least, always been a beacon of strength, her sense of normalcy. They would often joke around about times they could barely remember, the times before Leyadriel's dreams had scarred her face and her life for eternity. Before the orcs had raised a finger to her, there had been she and Eldarion playing under a blue sky and rolling in tall green grass with her father laughing in the background as their mother kept a watchful eye over them, making sure that the play never got too rough. Those had been the times of her life when Leyadriel had felt normal and beautiful and graceful and loved.....then one night, she was frightened by a shadow in her dreams and asked to sleep with her father and expectant mother and ever since her life had taken a downward tumble.  
  
Leyadriel kissed Eldarion's forehead and said, "I shall miss you dearly..you are the one, the only one, who truly knows me.....who remembers what I used to be like. I love you so much, Eldarion."  
  
"And I you, little sister. And I you my Leyadriel...now scamper off to your war. The sun is rising." He looked at her one last time and said, "Go now, I shall tell Celebrene, Silmarwen and Galaniel that you bid them a fond farewell."  
  
"A' Atara." {And mommy.} Leyadriel added as she pulled on an old Grey cloak with a mallorn broach that she had found in a closet when she was about 6 and grabbed her bag, sword, bow and quiver. Then she jumped silently out the window and, like a cat, landed safely on her feet and ran toward the stables to get the last thing of her's that would be traveling to war with her...her horse.  
  
Eldarion smiled and knew deep in his heart that he had done the right thing. He stepped out of the doorway and his father came up to him, expecting a report. Eldarion clapped a hand on his father's shoulder sympathetically before opening the door wide to reveal a room lacking a she- elf. Aragorn sighed depressed and took her absence without a farewell to him as a blow. His son left his side to go see his mother and the sisters that had hearts and deliver them a message from Leyadriel...a message, he realized with a great pain, that might be the last she ever sent them...  
  
Leyadriel, however, did not intend on severing all contact with her family....just with her father and Elaren. Her brother she could not abandon and there was no reason to cause her mother more anguish then she already caused her. And what of her sisters? She loved them all dearly and would not forsake them, she could not forsake them. She thought about good times in her life as she walked up to the stables.  
  
Inside the building a horse whinnied and Leyadriel called back, "I'm coming, darling, I'm coming."  
  
She quickened her pace and hopped over the gate that kept Du-amrun from the rest of the world. She kissed her horse's nose and immediately jumped on her back. The horse instinctively took a few steps back before jumping over its gate cleanly. Leyadriel threaded her fingers through the white mare's midnight mane and whispered to her, "At least you have not abandoned me, my beauty."  
  
The horse threw back her head and tried to nuzzle its owner but could not reach, so its rider petted its nose lovingly as another horse approached, a horse that wore no saddle, no bridle and was a great stallion of the Rohirrim, a stallion she happened to know by the name of Arod.  
  
"I take it that the mess in your room means that you wish to leave now?" Legolas greeted her with a jesting tone but worried eyes.  
  
"Why were you in my room?" She asked.  
  
"After your father and brother left I went in to see if you were alright and upon finding it in that state, assumed you were no longer in it." He flinched just remembering the wasteland her once elegant room had been turned into.  
  
"And then you assumed that I would be far away from it, and you remembered that today we were set to leave."  
  
"Precisely." Legolas smirked at her, "But you forgot something."  
  
"And what would that be?"  
  
"The troops."  
  
Behind him a wave of men on horseback caem forth like a plague of locusts and soon they were just behind him and the ones nearest to him were dressed in the garb of Gondorian captains. Leyadriel smiled and let out a small bark of laughter, she was almost giddy at the sheer excitement of her current position: she was free, free at long last from her home and was about to go to war against living replicas of those that tormented her sleep as well as those who had killed her kinsmen for millennia and millennia, and she could not wait.  
  
A/N- what do you guys think??????? Again WINTER"S ROAR WAS MY MUSE, but every single review was responsible for this, and every, chapter I write. Again I ask for suggestions of names for some of the humans in the group. REMEMBER TO CHECK OUT MY CO-PENNAME: VARDAPARMAWEN 


	23. Dwelling on Past Decisions

A/N- I'm glad that everyone was happy with the last chappy, I realize that I sort of made Aragorn dark and everyone had a fit about him hitting Le but I swear everything will be revealed now!  
  
Chapter 23- Dwelling on Past Decisions  
  
Ever since that first time he had seen her, that first time he had laid his eyes on her and thought that Luthien herself was before him, Estel began to wonder if he was capable of making a decision that would turn out alright in the end. Since causing the Evenstar of the Elves to leave her people, her family and loose her immortality, he felt a good many of his decisions weighing upon him. At first it was during the Fellowship's travels, he would second guess some of the commands that he had given to Legolas, Gimli, and Boromir....oh, Boromir. That was a big second guessing of Aragorn's. He constantly thought that if he had been less antagonistic towards Boromir if the Stuart would have not gone for the ring, if he would not have died....if maybe Aragorn would not have been crowned and Elrond would not have allowed Arwen to marry him and she would have been saved....and his precious elfling would never have been so mauled by the harshness of her life.  
  
He was slumped on a bench in the gardens, a slight breeze was winding through his graying hair and his heart was pounding as if it were crying but no tears fell from his eyes. In his hands, gnarled by years of hard work, was the bud of a soft white rose that his fingers were petting as he tried to compose himself. At dawn, or actually a little before dawn, he had made possibly one of the biggest mistakes of his life and he was bargaining his soul for a chance to undo it.  
  
When his children were born he was filled with the greatest joy. The first was a strong son, a boy to follow in his father's footsteps. The second was born with the pointed ears and quiet cries of an elfling and Aragorn felt a swell of pride that a child he had fathered could be so tainted by the Eldar. Then his fair headed babe, the only one with the golden locks of Arwen's mother's kin. But that child was born at a time of crisis, when a small elfling's innocence and purity were robbed of her by no choice she had made. It had been he, Aragorn son of Arathorn, that had done that to her. The greatest pride of all his children to him was that elfling, with the hair to make a raven green with envy and the eyes to put the stars and sky to shame. And his greatest pain was that he could not give an elven wife the life she deserved, and that he could not give his elven child a life that was worth living. Then he had two normal daughters, they were healthy and happy and with dark hair and eyes. Then his last child, his Galaniel, was the only one that properly displayed his many years of being a Ranger, and was another daughter for him to be proud of.  
  
But he was never as proud of Galaniel or Eldarion or Celebrene or Silmarwen or certainly not Elaren as he had been of Leyadriel one day, only a few days after she had been permanently scarred by the dreams that his seed had caused her before she was even born. He had asked her, "Rarely do I see you cry at these dreams, and though I see you in great pain you have not said a word of it, my little one. Why?"  
  
"Complaining about it won't stop it, there is no reason to annoy everyone by complaining about something that no one can help."  
  
He had held her to him then, and picked her up and spun her around and tried to convince himself that he was worthy to be the father of such an extraordinary child, such a brave child.  
  
But now there was no child to hold against his chest and there were no words in the world that could convince him he was worthy of the title of her father. Ever since she had thrown him from her room and fled, he had been slumped on the bench in a deep depression at what he had done...he had struck her. He was still completely astonished when he remembered that he had done that, that he had raised a hand to his most precious possession and not once but twice! Twice!  
  
The words they had flung at each other were worthless, there was no point to speak them. He already knew every word she said before she ever spoke them. And secretly he agreed. Elaren was spoiled and he often fought himself at that.  
  
It confused even he as to why he did it...he could remember the exact second it started:  
  
After Leyadriel received her pony, her beloved horse, Aragorn had found Elaren pining at the stables for one of her own and had given it. After she had begged for a new riding outfit and he had agreed, thinking there was no harm in the action. At least consciously thinking that there was no harm in the action but unconsciously he thought the same thing everything he had yielded to Elaren's requests, 'Thank Elbereth that she is not marred by the same shadows as her sister. Thank Elbereth.'  
  
And then he would give her anything she wanted simply because she slept soundly. But the novelty of sound sleep had worn off by the time his next daughter was born..by that time he saw no need to spoil the fourth child because he had not expected another elfling to be born. But Elaren was different, she was the first normal and healthy child after the shock of Leyadriel's illness.  
  
He knew it was wrong, and he knew that he should stop giving into her....but he knew it was too late now. Elaren was ruined, spoiled to the point beyond return and there was nothing he could do to reverse the years of indulgence that had already taken place. Out of pure joy that *that* child was not like the other one he unknowingly made out of a cherub-like child a cheap whore. He knew well of Elaren's doings, more out of spying the out of her sharing the tales with him. Aragorn had some of the palace guards tail her whenever she went out of her rooms or brought someone in, just to make sure that she was not hurt by someone one day. But he knew that Leyadriel had every right to say what she said, and he had no idea why he hit her instead of giving Elaren some long overdue parental attention, except that a part of him, a dark, sadist side he hated to admit he had, thought of Leyadriel as damaged goods and he could hit her simply because it wouldn't be the first time she had encountered a fist.....but he was still completely sickened that he had actually followed through with such evil thoughts.  
  
A long time ago, before Leyadriel was even born and he and Arwen had just had a particularly long night with Eldarion he had presented a question to her, "Darling, I know this sounds absolutely repulsive but, do you ever want to just give him.."  
  
"A little smack just to shut him up? Or maybe just ignore his crying for once?"  
  
Aragorn remembered his astonishment at hearing her say those words but he guiltily nodded his agreement, "Precisely. Why would we want to do such things? I love Eldarion more then my life!"  
  
"Ada says that we will get frustrated with him and that it is only natural to want to just give up, to just ignore him or the like because we are new parents and he is a new child; everything that is happening is a first for us all. That it is natural to have thoughts such as these but we must remember something very important." {Daddy}  
  
"Mani?" {What?}  
  
"That he is ours, our child and he needs us, as much as we need him. He needs our help to survive and we need him to love us so that we know we are doing this the right way."  
  
Those words had touched him so deeply then and even now they still meant so much to him, and he could only assume that he hadn't applied that theory to Leyadriel because he did not believe that she could ever love parents who had cursed her by birthing her.....  
  
Nonetheless, he wished that he could have Leyadriel here right now to hold and coo to and apologize and beg her forgiveness. To tell her how unsure of his parenting steps he is with her to this very day. But he knew that if she were here she would be miserable, he knew she was better away from her home, a home she felt trapped in. And yet he knew that all he need do to bring her to him is send guards to collect her.  
  
"No, I won't do that." He told the rose bud in his hand, Leyadriel wanted that freedom so much, "It's her turn to be spoiled."  
  
'Speaking of spoiling,' He thought, he got of from the bench and heard his back crack and rebel against the action. Wincing slightly at the pain, he realized that he had accidentally crushed the flower bud in his palm, he opened his clenched fist and watched as the breeze blew the petals out of his hand and into the cool clear night sky, the paleness of the petals making them look like stars flying slowly over the earth.  
  
Aragorn smiled at them and closed his eyes, 'I hope my little rose is alright wherever she is, Elbereth! Let her know, let her just know in her heart, how much I love her and how sorry I am and help her to find mercy and forgiveness for me somewhere in a heart as open as her's. Help me to gain my daughter back, please, I beg you.'  
  
He then opened his eyes and a solitary tear fell to the drop, on top of a rose that had fallen from the bush. The tear glistened on the flower for a second, and even after Aragorn had begun to walk towards the palace the tear fell down the flower's side and it looked as if the rose was crying. Little did he know that that tear and that rose would spawn another rose bush, a rose bush that was a pink so pale that it looked white, a pink as pale as the gown that Aragorn had had made for her just a few days ago that was to be given to her when she was crowned the Queen of the Elves.  
  
Yes, he had already planned for that crowning. After he had made Legolas promise him to stay away from Leyadriel, he had contemplated that decision and realized that Leyadriel would eventually be taken from him, by his own death or her own choice and if he had to choose between the two that he would rather see her be the most regal, the most beautiful Elven Queen the Eldar had ever known. But now he could never tell her that, unless she came back or sent a letter to one of her siblings, or to her mother. That was his hope, that she would contact them so that he might make some sort of amends with her.  
  
"Ai! Ada! I found you!" A voice said with a hint of glee. {Oh! Daddy!}  
  
"Elaren, tula sinome." {Come here.}  
  
Elaren knew he father as the one who gave her anything she wanted and went over to him hoping it would be for a treat, "Uma, ada?" {Yes, daddy?}  
  
"Do you remember when you were nine and you wanted a ball gown like your mother's?"  
  
"You gave me one for my tenth birthday."  
  
"And what about the time your horse died from heat exhaustion and you wanted another one?"  
  
"I got to pick it out the next week with you."  
  
"Have I been a good father to you Elaren?"  
  
"The best one."  
  
He looked in her eyes darkly, "Then why are you such a horrible daughter to me?"  
  
"Ada?" She asked with innocent eyes watering up with faux distress. {Daddy?}  
  
"Why do you feel the need to use my love for you as a toy chest to simply pull a new favor out of at your whim?"  
  
She shook her head and mouthed words that had no sound so he continued, "Why do you feel the need to take all the love and freedom I bestow upon you and turn yourself into a whore and a disgrace to my name? My pampering ends NOW!"  
  
Tears and a whimper echoed from her and he took her jaw sharply in his hand and said, "I've been married to your mother for years, Elaren, I know a crocodile tear when I see one. You have made many lives very difficult in this palace and that ends NOW, do you hear me?"  
  
"How could you be saying these things to me? MY own sister just attacked me! She maimed me!" Elaren gestured to the marks on her pretty face that Leyadriel had put there.  
  
"Leyadriel gave you no more then what you deserved for being such a brat for so long! I should have done something similar years ago instead of letting you go on unchecked!"  
  
Elaren flushed red with anger and pushed her father against a tree, but he would have none of that. He grabbed her wrists and held them to the point where her hands were turning blue and numb from the lack of blood, then he threw he to the ground and she landed with a small cry as a rock cut a laceration threw one of her eyebrows.  
  
"Expect your room to be a tad bit naked when you return to it, I am having the servants remove what is no longer needed until you can reign your anger, your frustration and your wantonness."  
  
She let out a scream of fury as her father walked back to the palace to put that threat into motion.  
  
One of Elaren's eyes had had several blood vessels in it ruptured when she had hit the ground and now one eye was just red with a blue centre. She knew that Leyadriel's leaving was the reason for her father's long overdue treatment of her and she was not happy with it. Then a wicked smile came upon her lips as she knew what she could do to hurt them like they had hurt her, hurt her father and his robbing her of her possessions, to hurt her mother and sisters who tutted and clucked to her about how she should not be so evil to Leyadriel when Elaren was just as much a victim. They would all be expecting letters from Leyadriel...what would happen if those letters never came? What happened if the messengers bearing her sister's tidings met an ill end before ever setting foot in the Gondorian palace.  
  
'But I surely cannot do it, they would find out.' She thought and asked a firefly nearby, "Ya? Who would help me to get back at father and Leyadriel?" [Who?]  
  
A shadowy figure suddenly emerged out of some bushes nearby they had apparently been hiding in for a time.  
  
"I believe I might be able to help you, Princess Pheidan." A voice purred.  
  
When Elaren saw the face behind the voice she smiled and responded, "I believe that you can indeed help me, my Lord."  
  
She knew that this man would help her, he had helped her in separating Leyadriel from Legolas once before, but they were children at a ball then and now it was not just the ever present goal of separating Legolas from her sister, it was the goal of breaking her father of his pathetic love for the she-elf that he would have to help her with.  
  
"It seems that I have returned to Gondor at a very opportune time." The shadow purred as he kissed Elaren's hand and snarled malevolently at the mere thought of hurting King Elessar.  
  
A/N- who do you guys think that is? Hehehehehehhehehehe, hey now this is 2 chappys within a day of each other, I'm getting pretty good aren't I? Thank God for Spring Break. What do you guys think? Expect a new chappy soon. 


	24. Waking Dreams and Waking

A/N- I heard that a certain fluff monster needed feeding..maybe soon. Oh, just in case anyone was wondering: I don't own Legolas, if I did would I really be writing now? I think not, I would be making little half elves with big blue eyes and high cheekbones, cute little gold hair and great aim.  
  
Chapter 24- Waking Dreams and Waking  
  
*She was laughing with him, her laugh far more melodious then his. She spun around in a circle made from his arms before collapsing against his chest, slightly out of breath. He brought her head up slightly so that he could see those pools of blue that he longed to drown in. She smiled and pushed his hair behind his ears, purposely massaging the tips as she did so and making him fall to his knees with the weakness that his desire gave him.  
  
Leyadriel fell on top of him and laughed mischievously, "Such a strong warrior, yet so easy to pin down?"  
  
At that he raised an eyebrow to her and flipped their positions so that he was on top, her hands were pinned above his head and his knees were between her legs, "Who's easy to pin down now?"  
  
"I'm not easy to pin," She replied, breaking her hands free of his grasp to pull his head closer to hers, "I simply know when it's a good thing to be pinned down."  
  
With that she brought her lips to his and he savored the flavor of those ripe blossoms against his own. She moaned delightedly and arched her back, aching for more contact that simply the kiss. He obliged by running his hands from her cheeks to her breasts to the small of her back where he began unlacing her dress. She was anxious and deepened the kiss, pulling his tunic off of him. He was sick of her little ploys for more attention and gave into her, diving his tongue into her mouth and playing games with her own. As he pushed her dress to her thighs she wiggled her way out of it before bringing her knees up to near his head and using her feet to push his britches to the ground. His hard desire was pulsing against her stomach and he longed to explore different depths of her, but waited for her allowance of the act. When she wrapped her legs around his hips, he proceeded to drive himself into her, breaking her innocence with a swift motion. Beneath him she let out a whimper of pleasure as he rocked in and out of her.  
  
Once more she arched that marvelous back of her's in ecstasy and when she did it emphasized her marble-smooth skin to him; pale as snow without a mar to speak of. He grew weary of looking at that body, he longed to touch more of it and so he dipped down to claim her lips in another searing kiss. Now, it was Legolas' turn to toy with the sensitive tips of her ears, and as he did so he nibbled on her bottom lip and was confused as to which to respond to.  
  
But then he felt himself near the brink of his pleasure and stilled their kiss, holding the moment in his power before giving a last deep thrust into her, causing her to cry out in complete elation as his seed spilled into her and her warmth closed tightly around him for the last time...well the last time for that night anyway. And he slowly took himself from her, she pouted at the separation but quickly found herself wrapped in his arms again, warm and safe without a care in the world.  
  
Leyadriel sighed contentedly against him and snuggled her head into the crook of his neck before slowly drifting off into a slumber that promised peace and rest. Legolas kissed the top of her head and held her closer to his body, feeling possessive of her, feeling the need to prove to their witnesses, the stars, that she was his and his alone....*  
  
Legolas smiled before his eyes came into focus and he frowned, realizing that his dream was over and all the joy that came with it was gone. He was on his stomach, in his tent and he turned over to be on his back and stared at the ceiling. Outside there was no noise and he sighed happily, all was well. He half closed his eyes and began to sing the song he had taught Leyadriel a time ago, but before the first verse could be finished loud laughter and the crashing down of tents could be heard.  
  
"Mani?" {What?} Legolas asked himself as he put on a tunic and britches to go see what was wrong.  
  
He ran out to meet this disturbance he saw about four dozen of his men acting extremely drunk, apparently they had brought some liquor with them to 'keep out the chill'. Then he saw one emerge from the back of the group with a half untied tunic that was hanging loosely off of *her*. She staggered for a few steps before two men helped her.  
  
Legolas was not impressed, "Leyadriel!!"  
  
She looked up at him with unfocused eyes barely recognizing who he was. He grunted angrily and moved forward to take her from the two men she was using as crutches. Just looking at her she looked completely drunk beyond comprehension; he could only hope that she had elvish tolerance. Elves could drink as much as they pleased, feel a temporary drunkenness before it dissipated and they never even had a hangover. The two men holding her brought her away from his touch and he looked at them seriously, "Let me have her."  
  
"Why? She's fine where she is." One answered.  
  
"I think not, I promised her parents to take care of her and leaving her with you does not qualify."  
  
Now they stood before the princess, blocking her from Legolas completely and he noticed that they were completely sober. They were the only two who were and that made them sorely stand out all of a sudden.  
  
"Who are you?" Legolas asked, becoming increasingly annoyed with these mortals.  
  
"Ruinion and Krelan." They said, "And we're not afraid of you."  
  
"One more word and I'll.."  
  
"And you'll what? These are the volunteer corps, you can't throw us out."  
  
"I'll kill you, that's one way of getting rid of you, isn't it?"  
  
One laughed and before he could blink Legolas put a knife blade to the man's throat, pressing hard enough to draw a line of blood, "Give me Leyadriel and then go sleep this off."  
  
Then Legolas yelled to the men, "Enjoy the last of those drinks because they will be your last on this mission."  
  
The mission had gone well up until now, they had been riding for a month, the trip taking a long time because of the sheer number of men that were coming, nearly a thousand. This was not the first time liquor had been a problem, but it was the first time in such numbers! A few drunks he could forgive, after all a lot of these men were leaving their families and might not return to them and sometimes a sip or two could dull that pain but four dozen! Four dozen he could not forgive or ignore. And Leyadriel! How had she been dragged into this!  
  
Ruinion and Krelan stepped aside and Legolas scooped Leyadriel up into his arms and carried her back to his tent, he was not going to leave her unsupervised for the rest of the night with the threat of drunken mens' raging sexual appetites. He was extremely disappointed in her...extremely disappointed. Nonetheless, he laid her down and she fell into a deep, deep sleep almost as soon as her head hit the pillow, but this Cheshire cat grin would not leave her face, she looked far too happy for his ease at the moment.  
  
He dampened a towel and pressed it to her head, her flushed cheeks and smoothed down her hair which was in a mess of wild tangles. After that was done he quickly retrieved one of her other riding skirts, which were calf length skirts with four cuts going straight up to her waist and pants underneath it for the purpose of riding, fighting, and the like. He pushed down the blanket on top of her and unlaced her tunic, though it was only a lace away from falling off of her, and then something caught his eye. He had only seen her breasts once but he had seen numerous breasts throughout his life and he could not recall any having fingernail marks in them naturally. He saw that her pants weren't even retied, they were just in place because her hips kept them in place and there was semen on the fabric of them.  
  
Rage flooded through Legolas, someone had taken advantage of her! But then a voice in his head told him, no, that couldn't be. If she had been raped, no matter how drunk she was, she would've died. So was the elvish way. So...no. He refused to think it...Leyadriel had had a one night stand (or possibly more then one) with a crowd of drunken humans? No, no, no, no, no. She must be courting someone new and had neglected to tell him, that he would take over a night of merrymaking.  
  
Still, in the pit of his heart he knew the truth. It sickened him and he hated to accept it, it caused him more waves of hatred and jealousy then he knew he possessed, but he *knew* it.....his pen mir {little jewel} had just allowed any number of drunken human slobs to do with her what they pleased.  
  
'I will never let her drink again.' He thought as he threw the soiled riding suit into the fire outside. Then he walked back into his tent and checked her for other bruises or marks. Luckily it was just the fingernail marks. He stared at her body, naked in all its glory, and leaned down closer to her. He wondered if her dreams would still harm her if she had the death-like sleep of a drunk, he hoped for her sake that she had one night of peace. He longed to touch her, longed to hold her, longed to kiss her and tell her that she needn't go to those mortal pigs for comfort that he could offer but his promise to Aragorn stood out painfully in his mind.  
  
Legolas still stole a moment for himself, and put a quick kiss on Leyadriel's lips before dressing her in the other riding suit and falling asleep by her side.  
  
A/N-awwwwwww, I think that's a little cute. Are the fluff monsters well fed? I tried. HAPPY EASTER TO EVERYONE WHO CELEBRATES IT!!!!! 


	25. What was at the bottom of the bottle?

A/N- I felt that we needed Le's POV for the drinking incident Also, we've been learning about this in health class and it's unfortunately embedded in my subconscious. Here's to you, teach!  
  
Chapter 25- What lies at the bottom of the bottle?  
  
When Leyadriel woke the next morning her head hurt like it had never hurt her before, the excruciating pain was not lessened by Legolas berating her with a great many loud questions about why she had done what she had done. She had only heard one question and that was the only one she had answered.  
  
"Tell me at least Leyadriel, what lies at the bottom of the bottle that was worth that humiliation?"  
  
"Peace." She had given him one word but really so many words behind it. Peace. She had discovered this before.....discovered that a drunken sleep prevented her dreams from plaguing her, prevented her from being tormented and instead allowed her to have a peaceful night's sleep...with the terrible side effect of a hangover in the morning.  
  
**FLASHBACK TO WHEN SHE FIRST DISCOVERED THIS**  
  
All around her music was floating through the air and laughter wafted through so thickly you could almost smell the ale on their breaths. People were merrymaking all around and it seemed so innocent, so exciting that it was impossible for Leyadriel not to join in. She saw a corner that was lonely and in desperate need of people to habitat it. She nudged her escort and then pointed to the corner, her eyes glittering with anticipation when he nodded. As they made their way over, he grabbed two goblets and Leyadriel ignored it, thinking nothing of it, until they were settled in their corner and he offered her one.  
  
"What is it?" She asked, looking untrustingly at the cup.  
  
"Ale, and rather good ale." He replied downing the goblet in a gulp.  
  
She shrugged her shoulders and took a sip, finding it a bit rougher then the wine she was used to but pleasant all the same. When she finished it she smiled, "It was rather good."  
  
Her escort smiled menacingly and had more brought over, he kept speaking to her and laughing with her as they shared the drinks. He seemed unaffected by the drink where Leyadriel began to be dizzy after her third cup. When she inquired about this he simply replied, "It's because I'm used to it, it takes longer to affect me then it will you."  
  
She nodded but said, "Can we leave here before I get too dizzy?"  
  
She stood up and nearly fell over but he helped her stagger to an isolated location by a riverside, "Ta ikotane vanima." {It is so beautiful.}  
  
"Dammit, woman, I can't speak elvish." He reminded her harshly.  
  
"I said that it was very beautiful here, and a tad more isolated than where we were before." She said, leaning against the cold grass and trying to make one of the two moons she was seeing disappear.  
  
He leaned over her and smiled menacingly, "Tis indeed quite isolated, my princess."  
  
With this he swooped down to engulf her in a kiss that left her mind wheeling. Then again it was already wheeling so he shouldn't be given too much credit. She returned the motion, suddenly feeling brave and not nearly so shy or self conscious as before and she rather enjoyed the odd sensation. He pressed his body harder against her's and put a hand on her knee...a hand that began to travel north. She pushed it down when it got too close to her center, which was aching for him to continue.  
  
"Why not?" He asked. She opened her mouth to reply but found no words waiting in her mouth to be spoken. Leyadriel began to search her mind for a legitimate reason why she should not do this but could not find one, she would reminisce later that her judgment was wanting that night.  
  
She shook her head and he captured her lips again, just as viciously though she found an odd satisfaction in the roughness. He pushed her skirts up and even the cool night air hitting her more intimate areas did nothing to snap her out of the fog that she had slipped into. A strange feeling of detachment began to overtake her, one she wanted to shake off but found that she couldn't. Shortly after a sharp pain began in her abdomen as her escort entered her without the gentle touch that should have been applied. She wanted him to slow down, wanted him to calm down but she couldn't make her mouth speak nor her brain compose something to say. She felt liquid ooze down her legs and inwardly was concerned but her lover paid no heed to it so she just pushed it to the back of her mind. He finally gave a last great push before she had the alien sensation of hot come invade her insides. The feeling was oddly comforting but her legs ached, her abdomen ached, everything below her hips ached and suddenly she felt sick. The man got up and was lacing his leggings when Leyadriel crawled like an infant over to the river and vomited profusely. Pengwaith watched her with a repulsed face before patting the small of her back, kissing the back of her head and whispering, "Well, thank you. Good night."  
  
Leyadriel felt empty and abandoned and sicker then she had ever been before, but she was beginning to love the detachment, the feeling that she was apart from everything else and nothing could touch her. Feeling more confident now, she pulled up her skirts to see what the liquid was..she found blood around the painful areas yet she didn't feel injured. She would not realize until tomorrow that the blood was a communication from her body to her, telling her that her virginity was no longer hers and that it left harshly. But she would realize something else in the morning...something that came with the blackout that followed her discovery of the blood........an unconscious sleep gave her no dreams. None at all, not even a shadow to taunt her.  
  
That was the first time in her life she had not seen so much as a shadow as she slept and she quickly became addicted to the predicament as most people became addicted to substances. She hated how this empty dream, this safe dream, could be reached, she would later hate the aftereffects of it but even so she knew deep in her heart that this may be the first time she had experienced this, but it was certainly not the last.  
  
***END OF FLASHBACK***  
  
Leyadriel smiled but Legolas didn't understand why, he didn't understand her reply nor her actions. The only thing he understood was that she had come back drunk and been a humiliation, an embarrassment and a disgrace to her family, her blood, her name, him and most importantly herself.  
  
She was near falling asleep again and Legolas was beyond frustrated with her, he led her to a basin of cold water and, taking her hair in his hand, pressed her faced gently into it. She snapped awake almost instantly but then she kept her eyes near closed and her hands were by her temples and ears, even slight sound causing them pain.  
  
"So much for you having elvish tolerance for alcohol." He scolded before leading her to a seat, "Tell me what happened and why?"  
  
"Legolas---" She moaned, clearing not wanted to do it but he had no mercy for her innocence ploy as of that moment.  
  
"Sii', saes, Leyadriel." {Now, please.} He said with a tone of iron yet still managing courtesy.  
  
She groaned and clutched her head in both hands before taking a breath and starting, "Some of the men I was sparring with decided that they wanted a drink, they said that they were all getting homesick and were also cold and wanted to numb that, they asked me if I'd like to join and I agreed."  
  
She stopped and looked at him but he arched an elegant eyebrow, "A' mani? Im sinta ner marte." {And what? I know more happened.}  
  
She sighed, "I took a few lovers, what is wrong with that?"  
  
Legolas' eyes shot open and he growled, "A few? How many is a few?"  
  
"Two and that's decent compared to the number that you've taken to bed on nights you've gone out merrymaking. I want no lecturing from you, Legolas."  
  
He was taken aback, "How do you know about my past?"  
  
"Ataramin." {My mother.} Leyadriel squeaked as she put her hands over her eyes to block out as much light as she could.  
  
"Arwen told you of that? I find that hard to believe." Legolas quipped inwardly praying Leyadriel did not know that explicit details of some of those nights.  
  
"She did whether or not you believe me, but that doesn't matter."  
  
"And what does? Your quest to find the names of the two men?"  
  
"I know who they are." Leyadriel defended herself, "Do you think me that fast and uncaring of my sexuality?"  
  
"Enough so that you found a need to get drunk to find that solace." He replied but that gave him a fierce slap to his pretty face from Leyadriel.  
  
"Don't *EVER* say that again, you make me sound too much like Elaren." She paused, "My motives were not simply to gain lovers, you overlook a more obvious answer as to why I did what I did."  
  
"They are not so obvious, I can see no other than that I've spoken of." He said evenly, trying not to fight with her.  
  
She blushed and looked away from him, she did not want to tell him else he forbid her from having it again. He sensed her slight panic and her fear and he softened, reaching out a hand to touch her that she moved away from. Leyadriel sat with her knees against her chest in a dark corner of his tent, finding relief from the light that had been reeking havoc on her sore eyes and hurting head.  
  
"Leyadriel," He cooed in a tone that normally gave him anything he desired from the tarien (princess), "Please tell me, I want to understand why last night happened."  
  
"You wouldn't understand, you're an elf."  
  
"As are you." He replied, a bit confused.  
  
"Nay, I'm not. I'm only part elven; I am part human as well."  
  
"So?"  
  
"Humans and elves experience some things differently. I experience drunkenness like a human would and you have only ever experienced it as an elf would."  
  
"I can try to understand, pen miramin." {My little jewel}  
  
Leyadriel smiled softly at the name, "I miss that pet name when I don't hear it."  
  
He took the opportunity to move closer to her so that he was kneeling in front of her and they were face to face, "Saes, pen miramin, yassen nin." {Please, my little jewel, speak to me.}  
  
"The slumber that follows is like death, so much like it that not even the dead dare enter it." She told him before looking directly into his eyes with a shameful look in her sapphire eyes, "I crave so much to not be tortured, most nights I simply do not sleep but then the fatigue of doing so wears on me so heavily that it is just as painful as sleeping would have been. I discovered much by accident that drunken sleep prevents my terrors from finding me, and I fell in love with that condition in an instant.....but I so hate the misery that comes before and after that sleep that I seldom find my relief there. But sometimes I must have it..." She looked into her eyes as an addict does when they are facing withdrawal, the look of necessity that will one day kill the needy, "I hate it yet that hate gives me more then any amount of love ever has. I am weak to give in, I know it well, but I can't help it. I want a cure so badly...that sometimes I just concoct my own."  
  
Legolas suddenly understood and all the anger and rage he had felt slipped away and he saw her, such a beauty, such an elegant wonder but so plagued with the most unjust of torments that she would do anything to stop them, even for just a few brief hours of rest. He held her to him and cooed, "I understand well, Leyadriel...Im hiraetha, Im ikotane hiraetha." {I'm sorry. I'm so sorry.}  
  
She pulled away from him slightly before burying her head in the crook of his neck and muttering, "If we are ever going to reach Ithilien in time to help, we should go. Your people await do they not my Lord?"  
  
Legolas felt the weight of that title, he felt the pressure of his people who were waiting with baited breath for the arrival of their soldiers, their saving grace and he was about to agree to that statement; but then he looked into her eyes, so endlessly blue yet torn with fatigue and pain and hunger and in no fit state to ride on. He knew that she was in a better state then a good many of the men but right then he didn't care about them.  
  
"You amaze me, Leyadriel. You are raped and beaten and shredded to pieces in your dreams and then in the waking world put yourself through so much and still you ask for more?"  
  
"I never said I wanted it, I said it should be done." She countered, trying to massage the pain out of her temples. He need not bring up her rape from her dream captures, she still remembered it painfully well. She had been surprised that she had not died from it as rape kills an elf but then she realized that it was not rape as there was not a physical being present raping her, thankful though she was for her life she still hated that she had lived through it and did not wish for that particular memory just then.  
  
He smiled and kissed her brow, "Then it shall be as you want, we shall wait another day. The others need rest and you do as well."  
  
"Favoritism is bad Legolas." She said as he cradled her in his arms and laid her back in bed.  
  
"It's not favoritism, it's rational. The men, most of them, will be in a worse state then you are now and we are close to Ithilien, a day will not hurt our timing and it will greatly help your health and theirs."  
  
"Rest hurts me." She countered.  
  
He frowned and pulled a soft blanket around her, "I know, pen mir, I know." {Little jewel}  
  
He kissed her cheek and was set for that to be all but she turned her head so that he met her lips, the contact was brief but sweet and Leyadriel eyed him devilishly as he met that gaze with one that said 'behave', "I only wanted a sleep well kiss."  
  
He smiled in spite of himself at the look of innocence she gave him just then before sailing his thumb over the same lips he had just tasted, "Kaima quel, pen miramin." {Sleep well, my little jewel.}  
  
And at that she closed her eyes and fell asleep, a sleep that he watched vigilantly so that he would be there when she woke bloodied from it.  
  
A/N- I don't drink and DO NOT PROMOTE IT, DON"T DRINK AND DRIVE PEOPLE AND DON"T DRINK AT ALL UNLESS YOUR OVER 21!!!! Also, I don't know if any of that drunk stuff I described was real, I just based it on Health Class. 


	26. Past and Present, Lies and Likings

A/N- Kris honey you wanted it you got it! This chappy was all from Kris' side comment from 25..here you go everyone:  
  
Chapter 26- Past and Present, Lies and Likings  
  
*She had been looking at him for hours with a hunger in her eyes, her whole gaze telling him that he was a treat she desperately wanted to devour. He had to admit that it was a very tempting idea. She had kissed him during the night once already and he had to admit that he wanted more from those sweet lips. She had waves of crisp golden hair and big blue eyes that drew in whoever she was looking at. But then there was the other one, for the life of him he could not remember her name but he well remembered her curves. She had more body to her then most she-elves did in Mirkwood. Her waterfall of brown hair cascaded over her breasts, just pulling the attention there. The fantasies that he was having about those two was a succulent yet vicious cloud that kept slipping through his fingers.  
  
They were probably escaping him because his lover was beside him. She had come to Mirkwood for the first time since their relationship began and she was having the time of her life with the merry elves of Greenwood. Arwen leaned her head on his shoulder and asked, "Ya dona lle elea?" {Who are you looking at?}  
  
"Maidens who wish to be where your going to be tonight." He quipped giving her a deep kiss and pulling her against him.  
  
A mischievous look came to Arwen's eyes, "How many maidens?"  
  
Legolas' eyes lit up, thinking that they were having a joint naughty idea. He gave her a parting kiss before stalking up to the one with the captivating gaze and taking her hand, making her tag along as he searched for the one that had the curves that his Arwen didn't have. When he found her, he whispered in her ear and she followed as he found Arwen and the group walked back to his chambers.  
  
As soon as the door was shut behind them the blonde one shook off her dress and pulled Legolas against her for a kiss that far exceeded the one she had given him earlier. His mind spun as her tongue dueled with his but before he could get the upper hand of the battle two hands spun him around and the voluptuous brunette pushed off his clothing before wrapping her legs around his waist and taking the tip of his ear in her mouth. The blonde smirked and dropped to her knees, taking him fully in her mouth. He wondered where Arwen was when suddenly he found her, arms snaked around him from behind and lips found his other ear, Arwen at least knew better then the brunette how much the tips of his ears weakened him to women. Before he could comprehend anything he was on his back in his bed and the blonde was strattled across him, he was deep inside her and she was riding him like one normally would a horse. Arwen managed to push the brunette away long enough to claim Legolas' lips for herself and then he savored the kiss far more then before. But soon enough his Evenstar was pushed aside as the brunette spat, "You have him to yourself every night, do share."  
  
The brunette saw the prince's eyes focus themselves onto her breasts and soon Legolas had pulled her close enough to him so that he could capture one in his mouth. She pushed into the contact and allowed his velvety tongue to do all that it desired.  
  
Legolas' shaft and mouth were occupied, but suddenly his fingers felt lazy and he sought out Arwen's body and when he found her fingers that usually petted arrows were petting her warm interior. Then he found his release and the blonde that he was in screamed out his name in ecstasy before he felt her roll off of him and the brunette quickly pulled her breast from her sovereign's mouth before being the next one who had the pleasure of his length. His only contact to Arwen was with his digits but he wasn't complaining as soon the blonde was giving him another kiss with that talented mouth of hers. The brunette was far faster, far harder then the blonde who, he discovered, enjoyed to savor things. The curvier maiden found her release far faster then the first and he followed soon after.  
  
Then Arwen pulled away from his fingers and pushed the other two away and mounted her steed. The blonde was pushed aside by the brunette who soon had Legolas nursing on her breasts as though he were an infant again and the blonde was receiving the full effect of an archer's fingers. Arwen had a style very different from the other two who were both feverish in pace because neither had ever had a prince for a lover but Arwen was used to Legolas and so she toyed with him a bit. Her pace was like that of a wave, during part of her motion she was fast and hard but then she stretched the moment and slowed to near stillness. It drove him mad with wanting more of her then what he had but he was content enough with the attention from the other two.  
  
Then Arwen pushed herself out of him and he would've shouted out in confusion but then she took him fully in her mouth and her tongue played around his pulsing member with such ferocity that he came hard and in her mouth and she lapped up the residue as if it were sugar water. That night Legolas slept with three women in his arms, that morning he did not know two of them who had vanished before he and Arwen could ever wake.  
  
In the morning Legolas woke with a kiss from his lady and without even opening his eyes he flipped her on her back and was in the dominant position, one he had not held the previous night. She moaned deliciously beneath him as he massaged her breasts and made himself ready to be in her again. Soon he was slowly pushing himself in her, he had yet to open his eyes and see her but soon he would find himself staring at her....  
  
She moaned happily at first but then her moans slowly but surely turned to screams of pain and agony and he opened his eyes to see Leyadriel beneath him where Arwen should have been...*  
  
Legolas woke with a start from his odd dream to Leyadriel screaming in pain that came from the blood coming from her throat, there were four scratches as if an animal had clawed her and he quickly sat her up and began to tend to the wounds before she even woke up. She was not screaming as loudly now that she was in his arms but she was still flinching and bleeding and crying. Leyadriel then shuddered tremendously before sinking deeply into his arms. For a moment he thought she was dead, her breathing had slowed to a near stop and her heart rate was barely there.  
  
He shook her slightly, "Leyadriel!! Leyadriel!! Wake up!"  
  
His calls did nothing and she stayed still for long minutes. His heart sank, he could feel a part of him die as he slowly thought, she's dead. Ai Elbereth! She's dead! He realized all that had passed between them, all that had upset her or angered her or hurt her. He had sworn to never hurt her and for the life of him he could not keep the promise.  
  
"Why is it always the one's we love most that we hurt the dearest?" He asked her limp body. A tear fell down his cheek, and his heart shattered to where he didn't think he would ever put it all back together.  
  
'Surely this is my punishment,' He thought, 'I have sworn so many times to protect her and help her and show her only the sweet parts of life and I failed so Elbereth took her away from me..... no! Please no! I will do anything! Anything! I will atone for all every grievance I have caused her if you return her to me!'  
  
He looked at her still body and then felt for her pulse and it stopped....her breathing stopped...and his heart began to fade...  
  
"AHHHHHH!"  
  
Legolas' eyes sharply focused as Leyadriel sat up straight. His dream was fresh on his mind.. Both of his dreams. But he pushed even their memory to the back of his mind as Leyadriel leaned over and cupped her mouth, there was a slit straight across her bottom lip that was bleeding like rapids flow: fast and angrily. He quickly got a cloth and pressed it to the injury as Leyadriel grabbed her wrist, which had been slit. Leyadriel held the cloth to her mouth as Legolas tended to her wrist.  
  
His heart was beating so fast he thought it would explode in his chest. He still felt the horrible pain of his dream, of that fright of having Leyadriel taken from him, and he kept touching a part of her to assure himself that she was alive and as well as could be expected. She noticed his slight panic and cupped his face in her hand.  
  
"Mani naa ta, Legolas?" {what is it?} She asked though the sentence was slightly muffled.  
  
"Kai, ta kai." {Nothing, its nothing.} He replied nuzzling his face into her hand just to feel its warmth, its life, its pulse, "Im ikotane hiraetha, Leyadriel." {I'm so sorry.}  
  
"Mankoi?" {Why?}  
  
"I have not made your life easy for you and for that I am sorry." He gazed into her eyes and she smiled.  
  
"You do not hurt me, mellon." {friend.} She replied, "You keep me grounded on this earth."  
  
"I should be letting you soar with the stars." He said as she gently pulled her hand away from his face.  
  
She pulled the cloth away from her mouth and flinched slightly, "How does it look?"  
  
It was beginning to stop bleeding but was still an ugly mark, "It may scar over."  
  
Leyadriel lower her gaze to the floor and sadly muttered, "It would not be the first."  
  
He saw her despair and make her look at him, "Nothing can mar your beauty, Leyadriel. Nothing. You will forever be so enchanting and desirable as you are, no matter what happens to you that shall never leave you."  
  
Tears of joy were behind her eyes as she looked into his own gaze, mesmerized by his words. She put a hand on the front of his tunic and pulled him toward her, whispering, "Show me I'm beautiful."  
  
The fear of loosing her was still fresh in his mind and at that moment his promise to Elbereth outweighed his oath to Aragorn. He fell on top of her gently and gave her a feather light kiss over her wounded lips, so as not to hurt her. She pushed into it and traced the inside of his lips with her tongue. She felt his hands travel from her hips to her breasts before coming up to cup her neck and keep their contact strong and unyielding. A drop of blood from her lip gave Legolas a shock of bitterness but her hands came up and gently massaged the tips of his ears, preventing him from backing away from her. Her legs came up and curled around his hips and he wanted her, he wanted her so desperately but then the sun rose and its bright light flooded their tent and as it crept onto his bed they both paused as if they had been caught. Then Leyadriel pulled Legolas back down and continued to torture him, then he took dominance and pushed his kiss against her sharply and she moaned from under him. He was savoring her, loving every second of this but knew it was forbidden..then a soldier cleared his throat loudly, "My Lord, it is dawn. Shall we prepare to leave?"  
  
"Dawn of the second day already?" Leyadriel asked flushed with her actions.  
  
"You slept soundly all of the rest of the night, the morning, the day and well into the night Leyadriel." He told her as he untangled himself from her and stood up calling, "Yes, ready the horses."  
  
Legolas did not have time to even turn around nor consider what to do before Leyadriel was beside him pressing another heated kiss to his lips. She pushed her whole body against him but he gently pushed her away, breaking the kiss gently, "The dream is over Leyadriel, tis the morning now."  
  
Leyadriel thought angrily, 'Every time we grow closer he pushes me further away.' Then she spoke, "And we wouldn't want a dream to be remembered, would we?"  
  
"N'uma," {No} He said with a pained heart, silently cursing his promise to the Gondorian King, "We wouldn't want that, pen mir." {little jewel}  
  
She turned sharply and whistled Du-amrun over to her before mounting the horse with the ease of an expert before taking off at trot to await the rest of the troops to ready themselves.  
  
A/N- sorry, that may have been a little confusing. Basically he had two dreams and then he woke up. How's that for punishment, Kris? 


	27. A Family's Lament

A/N- In the last Chappy the first part was a memory he was dreaming of not just a figment of his imagine dream. K?  
  
Chapter 27- A Family Lament  
  
Galaniel stared at the crimson horizon as the sun sank and sighed impatiently, tapping her fingers against the glass.  
  
"Where are you, sister?" She whispered, her breath fogging the window temporarily. She put her hand over her eyes and then sat on the floor in a defeated pile, "I suppose you're happier wherever you are."  
  
Every night since Leyadriel had rushed away from home with the army Galaniel had withdrawn to her chambers in a woeful state. Galaniel was a little hurt by Leyadriel's lack of farewell to her and more so by her lack of communication with the family. The youngest child missed her sister, she had always respected and admired her and always enjoyed their time together....except for that last night Leyadriel was home, that night she had *not* enjoyed.  
  
Since that night, Galaniel had taken to locking herself in her room, putting on an old nightgown of Leyadriel's and singing Leyadriel's favorite songs to herself; remembering the sister that was no longer present. Galaniel didn't fully understand why Leyadriel had been so distant over the past month. Everyone knew she was angry at her father and Elaren but Eldarion had assured the other three sisters that Leyadriel was not sore at them and would surely send them word. Still no letter had come bearing good or ill news and Galaniel knew they had reached Ithilien by now.  
  
A knock came to her door and she bid them enter, though her voice was soft and sad and probably not heard.  
  
"Galaniel?" Silmarwen asked, peeking her head in the door.  
  
"Uma?" {Yes?}  
  
Silmarwen smiled slightly in seeing Galaniel faring well enough but sat next to her and gently swept a strand of hair behind her ear. There was a sense of maternal brooding in the way Silmarwen's eyes took in her sister's garb and she knew that something was amiss, "Are you alright, pen neth?" {little one}  
  
"Im milye Leyadriel... Im merna sinta ho naa tereva." {I miss Leyadriel, I want to know that she is fine.}  
  
Silmarwe's fingers unconsciously combed through her youngest sister's hair, "She is strong and smart, and Legolas is with her. No harm will come to her, that is something we must have faith in."  
  
Galaniel nodded as the door creaked open and a pair of dark blue eyes peered in.  
  
"Come in Celebrene." Galaniel beckoned her elder sister enter.  
  
Celebrene shyly entered and shut the door behind her, "I didn't know if you were asleep, but it appears that you are not."  
  
"No, I'm not. Silmarwen and I were just talking.." Galaniel trailed off and rested her head on Silmarwen's shoulder not wanting to say more for fear that her heart would ache her more.  
  
"About Leyadriel?" Celebrene guessed and received two nods of agreement, "I was hoping to join you, she has been on my mind much."  
  
Galaniel's right arm was around Silmarwen, an anchor to a source of mother- like attention, but she reached out her left arm for something equally great, her sister's sympathy and understanding, something she could give even as she received it, "Please do."  
  
Celebrene cuddled against her baby sister, pulling a blanket around the three of them as they gazed into the night sky and, for a moment, just waded in the depths of their thoughts.  
  
"Ever since the first time I really remember Leyadriel dreaming, I had trouble sleeping. I used to think that dreaming was always a bad thing, like a punishment for closing your eyes." Celebrene admitted as she repressed a yawn.  
  
"I think a part of me is still waiting for that one dream where I have to fight a hundred orcs and goblins like Leyadriel does. Although I often wonder why she is so scarred if she is such a good fighter." Silmarwen confessed.  
  
"She told me once that she can't fight them, that she's always tied down and she can't do anything but scream and bleed." Galaniel answered, a haunted look in her eyes, "I saw her dream once..I snuck in because I was so morbidly curious as to what was happening to her." A shiver passed over her and it spread to the other two, "It was the most horrible thing I've ever seen. I remember feeling so vulnerable, so exposed; if my oldest sister wasn't safe in her sleep how could I be safe when I woke? The next morning I asked ada to train me." {Daddy}  
  
Galaniel's declaration was one that made the other two reach into their memories. Silmarwen spoke first, "I never saw her as she dreamed but one night I saw them trying to stitch her up before she bled to death....I felt so badly for her that she suffers so. I would gladly bear that burden for her."  
  
"She did nothing to deserve it," Celebrene nodded in grave agreement, "but the way she excepts it and talks of it you would think she were a criminal facing a just punishment. She talked to me about her scars once when I asked. I believe her words were something like 'it is as though Eru knew I was destined to do a great ill and began my punishment early.'. I think that she truly believes it is her due payment for an ill deed she never committed."  
  
For a moment they were silent until Galaniel yawned and drew her share of the blanket closer to her.  
  
"Your tired, pen neth." Silmarwen cooed and she pulled a few soft pillows closer and the three of them laid down.  
  
Before she could close her heavy eyes, Galaniel spotted a shooting star and muttered, "Make a wish."  
  
All three gave a silent prayer, all the same prayer, and this they wished for with a heavy weight on their hearts that told them it would more likely then not be little more then a silent wish made by three hopeful sisters in the dead of the night.  
  
With that done they all huddled closely together, seeking warmth from the cold of the night and seeking a comfort from the dread that none of them dared give a voice to; the fear that their sister had perished and would never return to them.....  
  
Now that the three sisters slept there was only one creature awake in the household. Down the hall from the sleeping maidens a light flickered under a door. If one had ventured inside that chamber they would've seen that the light was produced by a fire that quietly cackled in its hearth. It burned on wood for a moment until a stack of papers tied by a ribbon was tossed onto the hungry flame an quickly consumed. The papers had been far more then what they'd seemed, they were almost every letter Leyadriel had tried to send to her family. One was missing from the pile but the fire's keeper had it in her hands.  
  
Her golden waves shined evilly in the fire's glow and she read the letter carefully:  
  
Dear Atara {Mommy}  
  
I have received no word from anyone in the family and I am beginning to wonder if we all parted on such bad terms that you cannot even reply to me. As said in my previous letter I still suffer the terrors of my sleep but thus far it has not effected my fighting. I have, indeed, fought quite well. Legolas and I are playing a little game that he and Gimli played in Helm's Deep, we are seeing who can kill the most of the enemy each day. He has beaten me every time but I have confidence that is only because this is my first real combat. All the men tell me that I do very well and I have not taken too many serious hurts.  
  
I hope to hear back from you, atara, with new from home.  
  
Meleth (Love)- Leyadriel  
  
Elaren snarled at the letter before crumpling it into a ball and tossing it into the fire. She sat at her desk for a second and pondered a letter of her own.  
  
Pengwaith-  
  
A successful snatch, my lord, and so far our plan is in full glorious effect. I am just asking that you make sure that the messengers you paid off are on your payroll only. I hope all is well with you.  
  
-Pheidan o Eryn Lasgalen (The Half-Elven of the Wood of Greenleaves)  
  
A/N- Little bitch ain't she? I hope this is to everyone's approval. My Writer's Block....at midnight. Well that's a lie..its only 11:53 


	28. Interlude

A/N- Another chappy that's two in about 45 minutes in the middle of the night. Kudos to me.  
  
Chapter 28- Interlude  
  
Arwen was sleeping, her breast calmly raising and falling. Aragorn watched her for a time before he swept a strand of graying hair behind her ear. The frown on his face gave way to a brief smile at her beauty, but the signs of aging quickly stole that smile off of his lips. He paced his bedroom slightly.  
  
His Evenstar was just beginning to show age, he had long since begun to show it. Though for his bloodline, he was not yet an old man, he was starting to feel the many seasons behind him pull his youth away from him. He knew himself to be of a healthy body and yet recently he had felt something essential for his health slowly but surely slip away.... his will.  
  
Every morning he woke feeling like the night before had yielded no rest to him and he grew impatient with the feeling that all of his greatness was far behind him. He was a kind of tired he had never been before and he hated it greatly.  
  
But worst of all he was beginning to feel useless, something he could not stand being. Ever since he was a child in Elrond's courts he had to have a use, even if it was to cause mischief and mayhem that the elvenlord would have to deal with. Later in his life he had the use of traveling and hunting and fighting and surviving...and most of all of loving. Arwen's love and her hope had given him a fight to fight in and later a kingdom to rule and a family to raise.  
  
But, as he recently discovered, he could not even properly do that. Ever since Leyadriel's last night at home and his realization of Elaren's over arrogance he had felt as though he had failed his children miserably. Aragorn felt like he had made a good effort to correct the errors of his past, for example, he no longer turned a blind eye towards Elaren's ill ways. However, he knew deep in his heart that soon in his life he would stop having great deeds to be recalled in tales and start being that old incompetent man, an old *useless* man.  
  
He wanted to stop that from happening, wanted to bow out of his life gracefully and with full control. He knew that time was drawing near. The only thing he truly wanted was for Leyadriel to forgive him before he died. In if no other form then a letter, something she had not sent to any member of her family. Her lack of contact was something that bothered him greatly and he knew he was not alone in the fear that she had died, not she alone but the entire group and therefore the message of her demise would not have reached him. She was like the brightest star at night to him, something he marveled at and loved and wished to bring closer, but every time he tried to do that she just became farther away. Nonetheless, he loved his daughter with all of his heart and he was greatly worried for her.  
  
Aragorn looked at the moon and sighed deeply, "Mani marte a lle, pen ielnin?" {What has happened to you, my little daughter?}  
  
A/N- I know its terribly short but as of now its 12:15 at night and I'm a wee bit tired. I have a great idea for the next chappy and I will work on it and try to post it soon. Yes, next chappy we shall be seeing more of Lego and Le, I just decided that we couldn't forget about her family for the time being. 


	29. The Thorn on the Rose

Chapter 29- The Thorn on the Rose  
  
'War is a terrible thing to behold, though sometimes tis necessary. Still dreadful, but necessary.' Legolas thought as he hopped down a flight of stairs to bring medical supplies to the healers, he was still shocked at some of the ghastly wounds even after three thousand years of military service. He would do anything for this war to finally end, he had seen too many friends die from it.  
  
"Diolla lle, tarenamin." {Thank you, my prince.} One of the healers said and as he turned to go help somewhere else the she-elf took his chin gently in her hand and looked into his eyes, "You are overly tired, even for one of our people. Sleep would do you well, majesty."  
  
He nodded, "Diolla lle." {thank you.}  
  
She turned to go heal a wounded warrior and Legolas shuddered at the thought of her suggestion. He hadn't slept in over two weeks, not even glimpsed a waking dream and it was wearing on him. His fatigue was great and that is why he had ceased active duty today, his shots were beginning to slip in their accuracy and he knew that he was getting to the point where his body was meeting its limits. Nonetheless, he had kept himself running errands for the healers and getting arrows to the archery regiments and moving nonstop for fear that he would sleep when he did. Gimli, who had arrived to help the cause three weeks ago, had noticed and had not commented, thinking that it was simply one of many strange ways of the elves.  
  
But as Legolas retreated to his rooms, deciding that sitting down might at least do something to sate his tiredness, a small figure followed him. When Legolas was about to shut the door he saw the dwarf and Gimli began, "Would you lock me out, elf? So much for the legendary courtesy of the elves."  
  
Legolas smiled weakly, "Come in, friend Gimli."  
  
Gimli staggered into the rooms of Ithilien's makeshift palace. The elves insisted that this was all they could do amidst war and in the quick time they had but the palace was elaborately designed and the Lord of Ithilien's chambers were very impressive. They were dripping with the velvet greens and golds and browns of Mirkwood and the carvings of leaves were enough for one to see Legolas' homesickness. Once again Gimli sighed when he entered the chambers, he always did. 'Elves,' He thought, 'So ridiculously good at everything and they can't even admit it.'  
  
Legolas flung himself onto a soft couch, cushioned with pillows and blankets befitting the son of a king. Gimli saw the sheer exhaustion in the elf and asked, "What are you doing to yourself, elf?! Sleep! Rest!"  
  
"I can't." Legolas' voice was muffled by a pillow that was seducing his mind to wonder but he quickly snapped himself out of that and slouched his back against the couch.  
  
"Why not? I think your plenty capable. Maybe its that nonsense about not closing your eyes, dim witted elves." Gimli suggested.  
  
"It's not that, Gimli."  
  
"Well, lad, what is it?"  
  
Legolas shook his head and was about to give the dwarf an answer but suddenly his heart constricted in his chest and a moment later the door flew open but the messenger needn't say the news aloud, Legolas' heart had felt it, "Sire, the princess is injured!"  
  
Legolas was already running to the healers, "Is it bad?"  
  
"Not a large wound, sir, but twas taken in the head."  
  
'Dangerous are those injuries even if they are small.' Legolas thought to himself as he turned a corner harshly and came face to face with the healers fretting over Leyadriel. She was laying on a cot with a bloodied temple, she was awake thankfully and pushed the healers away when she saw Legolas. She pushed her arms away from her body and kept them outstretched until he filled them, giving her a swift embrace and a tender kiss on her cheek.  
  
"Mani marte?" {What happened?} He was already feeling the guilt of not having been out there to protect her  
  
"I was fighting orcs when all of a sudden these other hideous," She paused and flinched as the healers began to disinfect the laceration, "hideous creatures that I thought were orcs...but they couldn't be."  
  
"Uruk- Hai." Legolas spat out the name as though it were a curse and he took Leyadriel's hand in his, "They are orcs that have been cross bred with Gondorian Men, they're almost completely gone but the few that are left are just as violent and vicious as before."  
  
"And Men??" Leyadriel tried but failed to suppress a shiver from going up her back. Then she saw another figure watching the scene with a look of horror and worry on his face, "Gimli! My little protector, why are you here?"  
  
"For you, my little wanderer." The pet names the flung at each other was a practice that they had adopted many years ago but it still instilled a wave of jealousy and laughter in the elf prince.  
  
Leyadriel smiled but then waved off the healers and sat up from her cot, "Im tereva! Saes, Im tereva." {I'm fine. Please, I'm fine.}  
  
Legolas nodded to the healers to go tend other soldiers and Leyadriel stood up and required Legolas' arm around her hips to guide her in a straight line. After a few steps she gently pushed his hand off of her and said, "Sleep is something I would not do now even if it was the wise choice. I am going to go back out there."  
  
"No!" He commanded sharply, "You are still wounded and I will not risk you becoming more seriously hurt."  
  
"At least let me go to the archers then! They will be far enough from harm." Leyadriel pleaded, the archers were kept on a high wall hidden by bushes and trees where they could shoot and not be shot at. The orc were not intelligent enough to fire arrows up into the trees. Legolas frowned deeply but he knew Leyadriel well enough to know that she would go there with or without his permission.  
  
"Fine then, but the second you feel ill or take another wound I will personally see you under house arrest until you are recovered." The look of protection in Legolas' eyes was feral and it did not go unnoticed by either the elf princess nor the dwarf who had been walking alongside of the pair.  
  
Leyadriel toned down her demands, "I realize that you promised my father to keep me safe, I am sorry I make your promise difficult to keep but I won't be detained."  
  
Legolas heaved a frustrated sigh, "Your father is not the only one worried for your safety. I want to see you safe as well, miramin, I do not wish you to rush into a battle injured because you do not like to be kept inside." {my jewel}  
  
Leyadriel nodded solemnly and kissed Gimli's forehead before sweeping a kiss over Legolas' cheek and turning to leave. Legolas' eyes followed her until she was out of his range of site. The two friends walked back to Legolas' chambers as he felt his tiredness weigh heavily on him.  
  
Gimli closed the door behind the two and immediately asked, "Why can't you sleep, Legolas?"  
  
Legolas groaned at the inquiry, he was hoping that the dwarf would drop the subject but he knew Gimli better then that. The truth was that Legolas' overly vivid dreams of Leyadriel were becoming more and more erotic and he could not allow those dreams to push him over his boundaries. Besides Aragorn's promise, Legolas had come to realize that Leyadriel was still too young and naïve, she was not an innocent but there was still a good many things for her to experience and he was not the one to induct her into those.  
  
"Why not, lad?" Gimli persisted.  
  
"I do not like what I dream about." Legolas blatantly lied, he *greatly* enjoyed what he dreamed of but he knew that they would only complicate matters.  
  
"Judging by that smirk on your face I'd say your attempting to lie to me, Greenleaf. Tell me the truth." True enough that the dwarf had found out the smirk on Legolas' face, the elf had been remembering a dream that had been so life like that he could smell her hair and he woke with a throbbing erection that had taken an hour to be rid of.  
  
Legolas did not want to tell Gimli the truth, he feared the dwarf's reaction but after having his friend stare at him for a quarter of an hour Legolas finally said it, "I dream about someone I shouldn't be dreaming of. I didn't want the dreams to distract me so I stopped sleeping."  
  
Gimli's eyes opened, "Who?"  
  
It took another hour of Gimli pestering him before the prince gave in, "She is someone I have known for a time and yet only recently have I felt such an intense love for her. I have tried to ask for her father's approval but he has denied it...he is a dear friend of mine and I won't go against his wishes but I want her so direly that it is painful to look upon her and not feel that longing."  
  
"Who?" Gimli's voice was solemn, he heard the tone that Legolas used and knew that his friend was in love. Elves only loved once in their lives and his friend had found his beloved, his soul mate and Gimli could not help feeling a little like he was loosing a part of Legolas forever.  
  
Legolas' heavy eyes looked into his lap and he let her name slide off his tongue like a guilty pleasure, "Leyadriel."  
  
Gimli jumped up, "Leyadriel! Aragorn! Legolas! Are you sure? How long have you known? Leyadriel!"  
  
Gimli seemed to be hyperventilating and Legolas threw his head into his lap dejectedly, "I knew it! It shall never be accepted!"  
  
Gimli's mouth was still agape but he realized the pain his reaction had caused Legolas so he settled himself and patted Legolas sympathetically on the back as the elf told Gimli everything he dared tell him, "For a little over a year I have felt the attraction in a way I have never felt desire stir in me before. I'm addicted to her, I need her but I don't have Aragorn's approval and I doubt she even knows. We never speak of it, any encounter we have is always forgotten and left as a memory of the past."  
  
"Encounters?"  
  
"Don't think of either of us as innocents Gimli." Legolas chastised, "Tis been long since I knew that bliss and it has not been her's for years."  
  
"I know but you.you haven't slept with her have you?"  
  
"No but should our encounters become any more frequent or any more heated I will not be able to stop. I promised Aragorn to leave off of her but I can't....I lo-"  
  
"Don't say it! Once you say it you are bound to it, Legolas! Don't break your heart and her's!"  
  
"Why not say it? I have known it in my heart, Gimli and I long to voice the words! I love her! I cannot deny it much as I would like to in order to spar she and I both but I can't! Tis as plain to me as the thorn on the rose...and that is perhaps what this love will be to us, the thorn on the rose."  
  
There was an uncomfortable pregnant silence as Gimli digested Legolas' words, then he spoke, "I can see it. Now that I truly look at you two, it makes sense to me but I can't but think of her as that little child ambushing me in the gardens and having memories of you giving her rides on your shoulders when she was my height. Its just odd to remember you as this uncle figure to her and then to hear you profess such love for her. But she would make you a happy elf, there is no doubt of that in my mind...however I would not say more until I knew of Leyadriel's feelings."  
  
"It's a sensitive subject, Gimli, I cannot simply ask her if she loves me. Too many barbs would fall upon us both should she answer one way or the other." Legolas reasoned before stroking his eyelids and saying, "I am beyond tired, I feel all the years of my life upon my body. Please, my friend, I wish to have some rest."  
  
"And you should have it." Gimli bowed out of the room and Legolas moved over to his bed, removing his tunic and boots before sliding between the covers. He kept his pants on as an optimistic sign that they would not grow painfully uncomfortable before he woke.  
  
He felt the world slip away from his perception for a minute before another dream began, so unlike the ones of previous weeks:  
  
She was wearing a circlet on her head that was identical to the one Legolas wore that bore Mirkwood's leaves etched on the silver in gold. Leyadriel's attire was a rich gown that was a deep forest green that was embroidered with gold stitching and leaves. She looked beautiful, she looked like Luthien the fair maiden of lore, she looked like Arwen her mother the Evenstar of the Elves...and yet she looked like neither, she looked like his Leyadriel, his little elven maid that everyday grew more beautiful. But this day she looked more beautiful then ever.  
  
Twas her wedding day, she insisted on being wed like a human would be wed but with an elvish gown, a confusing woman until the end. He took her hand in his and stared at the elaborate ring upon it, it bore Mirkwood's leaves as well but this had his initials on it. She was his bride, he realized, and he saw threw the window that it was nighttime. He drew her closer and felt that she was nervous, anxious even of the consummation of their marriage. He gently kissed her, reassuring her that everything he lived for was her and that he would not hurt her nor rush her and that she was in control. She wrapped her arms around him and took her lips from his and moved them to his ear and he let out a moan of "Melethnin."  
  
And that is when a slight cry woke him from his slumber. He saw Leyadriel sitting on his couch, looking at him as if he were a monster. Her eyes showed her feelings of betrayal as she got up from her seat.  
  
"Leyadriel? What are you doing here?"  
  
"I wanted to talk to you but you were asleep."  
  
"You could've woken me." He said as he crossed over to her.  
  
"Why? You have been miserably sleepless for weeks. Sleep was exactly what you needed. That's one reason I came here, to talk to you about your recent fatigue. I was worried for your health elf, but it appears that your fine."  
  
She turned to leave but he grabbed her arm and spun her around to face him, "What is it your angry at? What have I done?"  
  
Her eyes softened for a moment at his bewilderment, "You did nothing, truly Legolas nothing at all consciously. It was one of the other reasons I came to talk to you, something that had been eating away at me...."  
  
"Mani?" {what?} He encouraged her, his voice soft ignoring her outburst from a moment before.  
  
"Ya naa ho?" {Who is she?} Leyadriel asked timidly.  
  
"Mani?" {What?} Legolas was confused again.  
  
"The woman in your dream, who is your love?" Her voice was quieter then the coo of a dove and it was sad, broken. Since the first time they had ever kissed, something had stayed with her. Then that one he had first touched her in anything but a fatherly manner, he made her feel beautiful and wanted and loved. Loved. A feeling that she was not used to and one she craved and yearned. She gradually began to accept that it not just being desired, but being desired by him that she so craved. He was constantly in her thoughts, constantly haunting her every waking moment and she well knew that if she could dream as normal people do, he would have long since graced them. She felt something for him she had never felt before, something deep in her heart that was so powerful that it frightened her. Frightened her because she knew she could not refuse it, frightened her more because she knew that he could refuse it. Legolas had been something of an uncle to her, and she knew it would not be easy for him to accept that his "niece" loved him as more then just her guardian and friend. She had come to him after fatigue from her head injury had prevented her from being an errand runner any longer. She had finally decided that she had to tell him how she felt before she dropped dead from keeping it within her. Then she had found him asleep and took great joy in watching such a beautiful thing until he had moaned, "Melethnin." Then her world had crashed down and she knew that he was in love and her own love would not be returned to her and she had snapped at him. But she knew that he deserved the truth from her on this matter, for elves it was nothing to be trifled with.  
  
"My love?" Legolas repeated and he felt his throat dry nervously.  
  
"Ya naa ho?" {Who is she?} It pained Leyadriel to even speak the words but she needed to know.  
  
Legolas sighed deeply, he was suddenly aware that he tunic was still strewn over a chair next to his bed and he decided to leave it there. He took her hand and sat her on one of the couches in the room, "She is someone I have known for many years, someone I hope to know for many more. She is the most beautiful creature I have ever laid my eyes upon and I have laid my eyes upon many beautiful maidens. Her spirit is unmatched, she is vibrant and lively and yet her bravery has not killed the part of her that needs someone to protect her. I wish to protect her for I would die should any ill come to her. I love her greatly but our love is a beautiful thing with many painful consequences. Her father does not approve of me and she is young, young and free willed and I should not be the one to initiate her into her adulthood. I won't see strife come to her, even if that means keeping my love secret from her as I have done."  
  
"The thorns on a rose can hurt any one who wishes to keep the treasure but they can be overcome! Why would not pursue her, Legolas?" Leyadriel was stunned by his confession and felt her heart break at the tenderness of his words.  
  
"I will not hurt her, not even to love her." He said sadly as he got up but she pulled him back down by his arm, a tear in her eye threatening to fall but she would not allow it to.  
  
"You are no thorn, Legolas. You could not hurt her if you tried to, does she know of your love for her?"  
  
"I do not know." Legolas whispered.  
  
Leyadriel shook her head, "She would be a fool not to love you."  
  
She was about to walk away but when she stood up he followed her and put his arms around her, drawing her closely to him. He leaned his forehead against hers and felt all his loyalty to Aragorn break on a whim, "Are you fool, then, Leyadriel?"  
  
He asked and she gasped, not knowing how to answer him so he leaned in and gave her lips a feather-light kiss before whispering to her, "Im meleth lle." {I love you.}  
  
"Im meleth lle." {I love you.} She cooed before capturing his lips and pressing against his body, wanting to be near him, needing to be close to him.  
  
He wrapped hungry arms around her and clasped her against his figure. Legolas pressed his tongue against her lips, pleading for an entrance that she eagerly allowed. She put her hands against his naked chest and felt all the well toned muscles from three thousand years of fighting and training. Her fingers traveled from his chest to his shoulders, which were tight with archery muscles, and reached his ears. As their tongues warred she smiled evilly against his mouth, she began to massage the tips of his sensitive ears, a motion he had dreamt about many a time that now that it was actually happening made his knees weak. He groaned against her and his grip fell from her back to her hips, which he ground against his own so that they both felt how dangerously close he was to loosing control of himself. But she wanted him to, she almost needed him to just to assure herself that this was real.  
  
Legolas, on the other hand, knew well how real this was. His heart was signing a song of rapture but his mind was reeling. He felt a hundred loyalties and friendships, Aragorn's not the least of them, shatter. He knew that this thorn would bleed more then he would've wished for but now that he had her he knew it would be near impossible to leave her, or to have her taken. He needed her, he wanted her and he was pleased at her reaction to him. Leyadriel's arms were currently tightly around his waist but they were more often than not wandering over his skin, at one point her fingers trailed down to the waist line of his pants and when they whispered over the head of his member he was completely lost in his lust for her.  
  
He pushed her backwards and she fell onto a table, she pulled him down on top of her and quickly wrapped her legs around his hips, causing her night dress to slip up high, revealing parts of her body that he had seen before but had forgotten. Parts he wished to properly acquaint himself with. An animal growl emitted from the prince and he flung her dress over her head where it fell to a crumpled pile on the floor. Their bodies were near molded and he felt her breasts against his bare chest and his hands quickly attended to them so that they would not feel lonely and exposed. Leyadriel was restless of the fabric barring her from her love and so she used her legs to push Legolas' britches to the ground. His erection was throbbing alongside her skin and she wanted him in her desperately.  
  
"Melethnin." She moaned, "Saes." {My love. Please.}  
  
He pulled away from their kiss and smiled menacingly at her before dipping his head down. His lips met her neck and he tenderly kissed her scars before suckling on her breasts then he traveled to her soft stomach were he nestled himself into her flesh, almost to the point where his release would reach him but he restrained it, he needed to wait so that it would be all the sweeter. His mouth finally met her center and his tongue laved at her throbbing core. She moaned loudly as he teased her and she was trying to restrain her own release so that she would know his body in her own before that ecstasy befell her.  
  
From just outside the door a low ticking of the tongue could be heard. The dwarf's ragged and loud breathing then faded as he walked away. The disapproval in his tone, the clucking of his tongue like that of a shamed mother to a disobedient child stung at Legolas' heart. Leyadriel, he knew, was going to bring him many troubles but he had thought Gimli would not be one of them. The dwarf had, so the elf thought, given his blessing earlier. But it appeared that Master Gimli did not approve of the night life Legolas had in mind. The elf froze for a moment and saw the circumstance for what it was. He saw a flushed and willing Leyadriel, her raven hair was a mess and her breathing was rushed and ragged. She was on a table, her back pressed against hard unforgiving oak and her hands gripping the edge of a velvet couch, this was not how he wanted their first time to be. She looked at him questioningly, worriedly, "Mani naa ta, Legolas?" {What is it, Legolas?}  
  
He sighed and shook his head, his throbbing erection was paining him and he knew that the tension in his groin would have to be relieved soon just to end the pain but Legolas bit through it and tried to calm his breathing, "Not like this, miramin. Not like this." {my jewel}  
  
"Mani??" {What??} Leyadriel sat up quickly, fearing she had done something wrong. Legolas came up and put his hands on her shoulders, seeking in his lust clouded eyes for the sensible maiden he knew was there, "What do you mean 'not like this'? I do not understand Legolas!"  
  
"Listen to me, miramin." His voice cooed, he was trying to soothe the part of her that was offended by his refusal, "Tis not you, it truly is not you. I want you so desperately, I have dreamed of this for so long and I need you more then you could possibly know. But not like this."  
  
He nodded toward their odd position, she was half sitting on a cold wooden table and he was standing before her, still physically quite prepared to bring her the pleasure she wished to have.  
  
"Not like this? As in not now and not ever? Or as in you are not enough so not like this? I don't understand what is amiss!" She cried in dismay and he swiftly took her face in his hands to soothe her fears.  
  
"I nearly took you on a table, Leyadriel. That is not what you deserve." His hardened length nearly brought tears to his eyes he needed her so badly but he kept that need from his tone and all she heard was a lovingly concerned tone.  
  
"Far worse has been done to me, a table is nothing." She replied, his body's warmth was seeping into her and driving her mad, playing with her senses seductively.  
  
"Precisely, melethnin, a table is nothing and you are the brightest gem in all of this earth. You deserve far more then nothing." He scooped her into his arms and laid her on his bed so gently that she did not know what to expect, lovemaking had never been slow and sensitive to her.  
  
He hovered over her and stroked her face, "Im meleth lle, Leyadriel. Ner lle oio sinta." {I love you, Leyadriel. More then you could ever know.}  
  
She traced from his temple to his lips with her fingers and realized that she had been looking at that face since she had been a child with no idea that one night she would be laying naked underneath him wanting to make love to him. Then she realized that he had known her parents far longer then he had known her and that in taking her, he might very well loose them. Her breathing had calmed somewhat and she put a light kiss on his lips before whispering to him, "Do you truly love me?"  
  
"Uma, Im meleth lle Leyadriel. Im lava coralle, miramin." {Yes, I love you Leyadriel. I yield to your heart, my jewel.} His lips barely whisped over her own.  
  
"You could loose many things dear to your heart if you choose me: my mother, my father, possibly my grandfather, my great grandparents, my siblings and then there's your family. Wedding a half elven child and so late in your life is not exactly smiled upon by many elves..." She trailed off her voice a ghost of its normal vibrancy but her fingers were still traveling over Legolas' fair face.  
  
"I would loose the sun, the stars, the woods and the sea for you, miramin. I am well aware of what stands between us and true happiness, but now that I have you I will not loose you. I keep what is mine, Leyadriel, and though I may let people stare at it and admire it, it is mine and not theirs' and I will not allow it to leave me. Do you understand? Nothing will keep me from you now, nothing. I could not bare it and I won't allow it."  
  
A smile spread across her face and she wrapped her arms around his neck and nodded before kissing him softly on his mouth. He parted her legs with his hands and then he entered her slowly. The feeling was so intense, unlike anything he had ever known. Her warmth surrounded him so tightly that he feared her was hurting her but her face showed no pain, her eyes were half closed in pleasure and her lips were slightly parted as a moan escaped. He kissed those lips as he slowly rocked in and out of her. Even he could not hold a groan of bliss as every sensation of the motion took him full force. He cupped her cheek in his hand as he thrust into her and knew his end was near but he didn't want to be there alone.  
  
Leyadriel opened her eyes and saw his silent question and she gave a shallow nod and he smiled at her before letting his thumb trace her scar, staring into her blue eyes was enough to make him pull sharply out of her in anticipation of the glorious end. Then he put a feather light kiss on her lips within the span of a second he had thrust as deeply into as he could and spilled his seed deeply in her body, spasms overtook her under him as she came to her own peak of ecstasy. Unconsciously their bodies molded, as his seed seeped into her crevices he gently thrust into her again, to ensure that his essence remained inside her. She own body sucked up the liquid as if it were a precious lifesaving substance that she would perish without. But something almost more brilliant had happened when they had found their release; a light had exploded in each of their hearts. Their love was pure and it was deep and they could only find true delight in each other now that they had found each other.  
  
Leyadriel's half lidded eyes showed her satiation. Legolas smiled and pressed a kiss against her forehead before rolling to her left side and settling down, pulling the covers up over them. She cuddled her head over his heart and put an arm around him. She well knew that she had never know such utter rapture in her life. Legolas completely encased her in his arms protectively, not wanting to share her with even the light of the moon.  
  
She pressed a kiss over his heart, "That was truly the most amazing experience of my life, tis unfortunate that it must be stained."  
  
He understood what she meant, she was tired and would sleep, would therefore dream and be tortured and hurt even after such an experience as this. This was the first time she had ever made love and come away from it without scars or bruises or a painful stab-like feeling between her legs. For the first time since she knew love making to be a beautiful art and not a cruel torture. He kissed the top of her head and rubbed her arm sympathetically, "I would bear that weight for you if I could, melethnin."  
  
"I know you would, and that only makes me love you more." Her eyes unfocused as she fell into a dream state.  
  
Within an hour she was gripping her lover's body so tightly that she nearly drew blood, the sound of a slap sounded even though there was no one else in the room to hit her besides Legolas who would never do such a thing. Her head snapped to one side and a handprint appeared. Then where he had placed love bites on her neck scratches suddenly appeared. He hopped out of bed to go get bandages from the drawer of his nightstand and he quickly pressed them against her throat. An angry hit met her stomach time and time again until blood dripped from her mouth from the punishment and at least two of her ribs were broken or bruised badly.  
  
She woke with a cough of that blood but quickly put a hand around her ribs, even breathing hurt her severely. Tears flowed down her face as she whimpered in pain, pressing harder against her rib cage to see if any were broken.  
  
"Don't push them." Legolas scolded her.  
  
"They're not broken." She announced.  
  
"Nay, but if you hit them a few more times they will be." The anger in his voice was palpable in the air, he would kill those bastards again for doing this to her.  
  
The bleeding from her throat was stopping and the blood she had coughed up was the first and last. She tried to sit up but grimaced as she did so. He gently pushed her back against the silk pillows, "Rest, miramin." {my jewel.}  
  
"N'uma." She said as she sat up, barely withholding a cry.  
  
"U-mankoi?" {Why not?}  
  
"There is a war to fight, melethnin."  
  
"You have severely bruised ribs, Leyadriel, you are not going anywhere except back under the covers."  
  
"Mankoi? So I might fall asleep again so they can inflict *more* damage? My body heals fast, Legolas, I will recover." She assured him. {Why}  
  
He could not stop her from getting up and putting on her nightdress, which she had to search for for a minute before remembering where it had been tossed hours before. He pulled on a pair of pants and loosely tied the strings before following her to her own room, just down the hall from his. When they reached there he could not stand her wincing at every step any longer.  
  
"Sit down, Leyadriel. If you must insist upon going out then I will at least make you wrap those ribs before my bruise in sympathy." He skillfully wrapped bandages and gauze around ribs that were a yellow-black- purple bruise that was so ugly and painful looking that his stomach turned. He knew his face was scrunched up in pain just looking at it. She caressed his hair as he tended to her and said, "One grows used to the pain."  
  
"Just because you are does not mean I shall ever be." He kissed her lips lovingly before she gently pushed him away and stood up with noticeably less pain. Then she went to her closet and pulled out a dark green riding skirt and suede knees lace up boots that matched.  
  
He helped her lace up the back of the dress before wrapping his arms carefully around her waist and kissing the side of her neck, "Be careful melethnin, please be careful."  
  
She nodded and laid out her hands against his bare chest, "I will, I promise." She looked at his half naked body and licked her bottom lip as last night seeped into her memory, "Now please get some clothes on before I loose my self-control Legolas."  
  
He smiled wickedly at her before kissing her one last time and whispering in her ear "Im meleth lle." {I love you.}  
  
With that he turned to get the rest of his clothes on.  
  
*** At the same time in Gondor***  
  
Arwen kissed Aragorn's brow and pressed a moist cloth against it, she held back the tears that wished to flow from her eyes. Eldarion came in to check on them but his mother shook her head gravely. Eldarion turned to his sisters and told them, "He is unchanged. I fear that these next days may be our last with our ada." {daddy}  
  
Galaniel burst out into tears at that, she had always been very close to her father and Eldarion wrapped her in his arms and patted her back. As he comforted his sister he summoned a messenger and told him, "Ride hard and fast to Ithilien and find my sister Princess Leyadriel and bring her this news; her father is dying and she is needed here urgently. Now GO!"  
  
The messenger flew out of the palace and onto his horse and was making his way there before Galaniel's tears had dried.  
  
Arwen saw the messenger leave and a tear fell down her cheek, "Adar, I know you can hear me. Please, please adar, please. If you have any mercy, any heart, any pity at all for mortality's bitterness you will help Leyadriel's feet to fly here...else her father part forever from her with so much guilt on his heart." {Father}  
  
But the Evenstar's prayer went unheard except by the white rose bush in the garden.  
  
A/N- This Chappy takes the Cake for Chappy from Hell..By the way, its not a true elvish wedding or whatever because there is controversy over it and I am just deciding on what I interpret to be elvish marriage so here it is: Sex does not equal marriage, with my story there has to be concession from both parties publicly and then they sleep together and be married. In other words: Lego and Le are NOT married even though they slept together. HOW ARE THE FLUFF MONSTERS? Well fed I hope. They won't be seeing their time for a while now.. Review please??? 


	30. Struggles

Chapter 30- Struggles  
  
A sigh came from behind the Evenstar as she was opening the curtains to let in the light of a new day. She rushed to the bedside of her husband and he opened his eyes. She was so relieved that he was awake after having slept for four days.  
  
"Estel." She cooed, "You're awake."  
  
He brought his hand to his cheek and responded, "It is coming soon, my Undomiel."  
  
"Mani naa?" {What is?} She asked concerned as fearful tears came to her eyes.  
  
He looked so peaceful, "The end."  
  
"N'uma!" She choked. "No! It cannot be already, Estel, it cannot be."  
  
"Shhh, shhhh Arwen." She stroked her cheek with his thumb, "You knew this time would come. We all knew."  
  
"It cannot come now, melethnin, it cannot. Please, Estel, hold on until Leyadriel comes. Wait for your daughter to say good-bye to you. Eldarion sent a messenger four days ago, please, wait for her." Arwen begged.  
  
Aragorn nodded shallowly, "I shall try, but it is a heavy door to keep propped up for too long."  
  
"I ask for a week, Aragorn. A week and she should be here."  
  
Her husband did not answer her, he merely sighed again and closed his eyes. Eldarion had been at the door, unmoving, unspeaking just waiting for his time to say something but he couldn't bear it. He could see the age wearing on his father's fair face and he knew deep in his heart that the man might not last that week.  
  
'Wherever are you little sister.' He thought, 'please hurry.'  
  
***In Ithilien at the Same Time***  
  
Legolas smiled widely as another parchment was brought to him, they were the numbers of orcs killed, the number of orcs alive. Each day the dead mounted higher and the living fell.  
  
"Tis almost over." He whispered amazed by the fact, "After all this time, tis almost over and done with."  
  
The smile could not be taken from his face even as the door to his chambers creaked open and quiet feet padded towards him. He knew who it was without looking and greeted them, "Have you heard the good news?"  
  
"N'uma melethnin, mani naa ta?" Leyadriel asked. {No my love, what is it?}  
  
He pushed the papers away from him, their love was four days old as of this eve and they had not had the chance to make love since the first night because both had been busy either caring for nearly broken ribs or taking part in the destruction of orcs. Legolas wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her across his lap, capturing her lips, "Its almost done with, miramin."  
  
"What is?" She touched the tip of her nose to his.  
  
"The war. Every day there are fewer and fewer enemies on the battlefield and soon there will be none."  
  
Leyadriel squealed happily, "Ai Elbereth! Tis indeed good news! How soon, do you think?"  
  
His eyes flew over the paper on the top of the pile, "Another year, maybe half of that depending on how many elves don't sail this year."  
  
A tinge of sadness came to his voice as he mentioned those who sailed, the longing in his heart of the sea had not yet been mentioned to Leyadriel and it was one conversation they would have to have before long. She seemed to understand that something about the sea troubled him and told him, "Elves still have their time on Middle Earth, melethnin, fear not."  
  
"N'uma, Leyadriel. Our time is over; we are just taking a long time to finish leaving." She sighed as he spoke so then he nuzzled his head into her neck and asked, "Speaking of the First Borns, when is it we shall finally see our next Queen crowned?"  
  
"Atar and I agreed long ago that she would rule in my place until her passing...I just hope that that time does not come soon." Her sad tone made Legolas kiss her cheek and hold her tighter, "But I did not come here to speak of sad subjects with you. I have news for you as well, my Lord, if you are not too busy."  
  
"I'm not." He said, "Mani naa ta?" {What is it?}  
  
She smiled and stood up, taking his hand in hers and leading him towards the doors, "Its outside."  
  
He followed her through the palace to the outdoors then to the stables. Upon reaching the doors she put a finger to her lips, calling for silence and she silently opened the gate to one of the stalls. In that stall he saw Arod and Du-amrun sleeping, Arod's head lay across the mare's neck and he body was alongside his. The two horses had been as close as their masters, but the horses never had the political trouble with their relationship.  
  
"The stable hands say that ever since leaving Gondor they have been like this, but I never saw them until I came to groom her just now." Leyadriel whispered in Legolas' ear her breath teasing the arch of it.  
  
Legolas stepped near the horses and Arod's eyes opened and his head came up to see his master, "Mae Govannen Arod." {Well met, Arod.}  
  
The elf had sensed something around the horses and he put a hand over Du- amrun's belly to see if he was right. Leyadriel looked on trying to figure out what Legolas was doing, she did not have all of the elvish attributes that he had, "What are you doing?"  
  
He smiled, "Tula sinome a' elea." {Come here and see.}  
  
She crossed over to him and petted Arod's nose affectionately before Legolas took her hand and pressed it over her mare's belly, Legolas closed his eyes and let his senses flood Leyadriel's so that she might feel what he felt.  
  
Her face lit up when she realized what he was trying to show her and he commented, "It looks as though they have been busier then we have been."  
  
"A foal!" She beamed with pride as her horse woke from slumber to find her mistress petted her in between her eyes, a place Du-amrun favored for petting, "You are going to be an excellent mother, lirimaer." {Lovely one}  
  
Legolas kissed her neck, "They have an excellent idea, though, don't they?"  
  
Leyadriel ceased petting her friend and turned to her lover, "They might."  
  
Legolas pulled Leyadriel to her feet and into his arms, "Elflings like you would be a handful though, tormenting me for all those years with those big blue eyes." He teased.  
  
"And what if they were like you? Rowdy and loud and shooting the house and the furniture?" She smiled before she kissed him, "But they'd be fair, and strong."  
  
"Aye, the fairest with your blood in them." He added before deepening their kiss.  
  
Her lips suddenly were unresponsive, "With my blood they'd be cursed."  
  
He saw her distress and her shock at the knowledge so he cupped her face in his hand and forced her to look into his eyes, "They would have strength in them then."  
  
Her eyes were distant and dark, she was remembering her childhood, being so frightened of what was happening to her and not knowing why it was happening or how to stop it. She couldn't stop it but there was hope, "Maybe it wouldn't pass...."  
  
Legolas pressed his lips against hers softly and held her for a few moments before her lips responded to him. The love in the air was mingled with grief at the knowledge that had fell on Leyadriel and she pulled back from the kiss to look at her mare.  
  
'My horse can sleep happily and mate happily and bear children happily and I cannot.' She thought and a single tear fell from her eye. Legolas would not have her cry and wiped the tear away, nearing reading her mind but not having any words in him. He thought she might want to be alone so he took a single step away before she grabbed his arm and pulled herself against him. Her eyes looked quickly to the horizon which had long since turned a dark blue for the night. Leyadriel grabbed his hand and laced their fingers together, leading him back towards the palace, saying nothing.  
  
They came to the bedroom that was quickly becoming theirs and had taken one step before Legolas completely encased his young lover in his arms. The door was still partially open but neither cared enough nor noticed to care enough to remedy that. Leyadriel pressed her lips against his, she needed to be desired just then, needed it like air. He clutched her body against his and tried to make her forget about the conversation he had foolishly began. She began to unbutton his tunic and he slid her dress from her shoulders to the floor. Her hands pushed his tunic to the floor and he unlaced his own britches, letting them slide to the floor before they got uncomfortably tight. He cradled her in his arms and laid her on their bed, proceeding to make love to her slowly and lovingly, in such a way that she would not doubt his undying dedication for her.  
  
The lovers' activities did not end until the middle of the night. Legolas fell into dreams first and Leyadriel's eyes remaining open, watching him sleep, even as a rider approached Ithilien. The elves at the border stopped the mortal, "Mani lle merne?" {What do you want?}  
  
"I do not know Elvish, but I am a messenger from Prince Eldarion with urgent news for his sister, Princess Leyadriel."  
  
"What news?" They asked.  
  
"Tis of her family and would best be delivered personally."  
  
The elves escorted the human to the palace, he was in a filthy and tired state as was his horse both having ridden from Gondor to Ithilien nonstop for four days. It was evident that he was near dead with exhaustion so one of the soldiers who had been awake and listening offered him a drink to soothe his extreme fatigue. Nonetheless the messenger was told to travel to the top floor of the palace and to go directly to the Lord's Chambers. As he was climbing the stairs, Leyadriel's eyes had just unfocused, and as he opened the door she had not even begun to dream. She was cuddled protectively against Legolas, her head on his chest and his arms around her. The messenger was loathe to disturb the peace and the intimacy of the scene before him but he knew his message was important. He cleared his throat loudly and the two elves stirred, Legolas sat up and scanned the room as Leyadriel held the covers against her chest.  
  
"Who are you? What do you want?" Legolas asked sternly.  
  
"I am a messenger from Prince Eldarion with urgent news for the Princess." He added, "Very private family news that should be heard by her ears only."  
  
Legolas was agitated, "You come to my land, my home and my room to claim her, I will hear what it is you have to say as well."  
  
Leyadriel nodded more worried then annoyed, "Tell me what is so urgent."  
  
"Tis your father, my Lady. He is ----" The man never finished because he began to choke. Legolas jumped from the bed to see what was wrong with the man and saw in the dim light of the moon a foam on his lips and a green tint to his skin.  
  
"He's dead." Legolas told Leyadriel, who was leaning over his shoulder to see what was wrong, "He was poisoned."  
  
Leyadriel gasped but then she remembered his words and asked worriedly, "What do you think he was saying about my father??"  
  
Legolas turned to her gravely, "I don't know."  
  
Leyadriel's heart fell, "What if something is wrong? Ada could be hurt! Sick! Dying! Legolas I must go to Gondor!"  
  
Even as she spoke she was running down the hall in all her naked glory and slide into her room to get clothes on. Legolas pulled on a loose shirt, pants, and boots before following her. She had taken an empty sack with her. She ran full speed to the kitchens and quickly filled it with some way bread and filled a skin with some water. Legolas took a second skin and a second pouch of food and followed her to the stables where she quickly woke their horses. By this time half of Ithilien was up and about.  
  
"My lord! What is happening?" One elf asked Legolas who replied, "A messenger from Gondor bearing news of the Telcontar Family dropped dead of poisoning in my chambers before he could tell us his message, we will travel to Gondor with haste to see if anything is amiss."  
  
One of his archery captains nodded, "While we are away we shall continue in our fight and await word from you."  
  
With that Legolas and Leyadriel mounted and took off at a furious gallop towards Gondor.  
  
"Noro lim uritaernin." {Ride on my fiery one.} Leyadriel whispered to Du- amrun who's pace quickened. Arod was not far behind and Legolas was keeping his as fast as he could. Gondor was a hard four days ride for the messenger more then likely, but with any luck the elvish horses and elvish riders could make it there in three.  
  
'Saes tira tereva, adar. Saes tira tereva.' {Please be fine father, Please be fine.} Leyadriel prayed, it was only heard by the stars above her head.  
  
A/N- Any ideas for the name of the foal?? Review please! I love reviews, they help my self esteem go from very low to very high. 


	31. I can't handle the Truth

Chapter 31- I can't handle the truth  
  
Leyadriel's mind had been torn apart by different things. Her father was not the least of them. Suddenly, every fight they had had recently rang in her ears and played before her eyes like a sick unending, unchanging dream and she gravely regretted every word that had passed her lips. She wished that he could know how much she loved him, how much she missed him and how much she wanted him to forgive her for every foolish action she had taken. Leyadriel wanted her father to hold her and stroke her hair and tell her that everything was fine, but she knew that that was far from happening. She also worried and wondered about the dead messenger. Who would poison him? Why? She could not talk to Legolas about another thought running through her mind.  
  
Children. He had brought up children and even as they sped towards Gondor, her stomach was uneasy with worry for her mare's foal. Then she worried about her own future. She had found her love, the one person she was meant to be with who cherished her like a rare treasure and would never hurt her. The one person she truly cared about and she wanted to make him happy. Legolas had hinted at children, and it would not be the first time that she had heard him speak of wanting them. He wanted a family and she was beginning to wonder if she was capable of such a thing. She was only cursed as she was because she was elven and with her father's blood in her veins. Those things would not change if she bore Legolas a child and the infant might very well be born with the curse. That was a chance and a risk she was unwilling to take. She knew well the horrors that that curse caused and would not thrust them upon a child as they had been thrust upon her.  
  
But Legolas was no fool; he knew that something was drastically wrong with his jewel's mood. She was quiet and withdrawn and he could see the intensity of her thoughts written on her face. He was concerned about her but there were other thoughts on his mind and he knew better then to confront her about anything, she was the type of person who needed to say the first word and put the last word in. He too wondered about the messenger and who had poisoned him and why they would do such a thing. He wondered what the message was but it did not sound like a happy one. He was very concerned for the health of Aragorn at the moment, the closer they came to Gondor he felt a deep grief in the air, a heaviness and a weight that made the clouds hang lower and the ground sag deeper, making it harder and harder for the horses to approach. It was almost as if the land was trying to stop them from continuing to spar them the agony they would find. This worried him greatly, this made him wonder if they were going to meet an ill deed.  
  
His eyes scanned the sky and he turned to Leyadriel and shouted, "There will be a heavy rain coming towards us, shall we ride on or rest?"  
  
Leyadriel considered his words and put a hand on Du-amrun's chest. The mare's heart was beating frantically, racing to a near deadly level and Leyadriel feared for the foal. She would not kill an infant just to risk the health of two horses in a downpour.  
  
"We shall ride until it is too heavy, then we shall rest. She cannot take much more with the burden she carries."  
  
Legolas nodded in agreement, he could see the exhausted shape Arod was in, and his stallion was not pregnant, "That should give us an hour or two."  
  
She nodded and then they rode in silence until the first drop of water fell on Leyadriel's cheek. Then they both knew they must get as far as they could before they were forced to stop and they pushed their horses to dangerous levels. Foam came to the beasts' mouths and they began to pant, finally the riders gave them a mercy by stopping and seeking shelter under the limbs of trees that seemed to welcome them in.  
  
Leyadriel's eyes were on the horizon, her heart could see the city and she knew by this time the next day she would be able to see it with her eyes. Her face was troubled and she paced at the edge of the shelter like an impatient horse wishing to run, he looked worriedly from her to her horse. Arod was nuzzling Du-amrun and she was laying on her side, beyond exhausted.  
  
"Melethnin." He spoke to draw her attention away from the border and when she looked up he motioned toward her mare, "Rochlle." {My love, Your horse.}  
  
The horse's big brown eyes looked frightened and Leyadriel felt a surge of worry and protection for her pet, her friend and gently pushed Arod away so that she put her arms around the horse's neck, listening to her pulse. Legolas came up behind her and looked at the sweating creature, too hot for her own good. Just a few feet away it was pouring as though the heavens were crying and he took off his outer tunic and held it in the rain for a few moments, allowing it to become saturated with the water. He brought it back and wiped it over the mare's body, occasionally putting his hand on her belly, the foal was still young, a month at best but his senses could pick up the dull life from within. The foal was in a spot of danger, with too much more exertions from its mother; her body would rid itself of the small life that was sharing Du-amrun's energy and food.  
  
Leyadriel's big blue eyes looked into his filled with a question she dare not voice in case the horses heard. He replied, "The danger has not yet passed, she's uncomfortably close."  
  
Leyadriel put a hand over the horses eyes and sang it a calming song, an old ballad to help the mare's heart not race, her breathing cease to pant, her sweating lessen and eventually stop. With Legolas' care and Leyadriel's song they pulled Du-amrun through what might have been the loss of her first foal. With a relieved sigh Leyadriel sat down beside the horse and stroked her mane, Arod was laying next to Du-amrun nuzzling her neck and stomach with his nose to make sure that everything was alright. Behind her Legolas stretched out, relieved as well, and his hand absently stroked her wrist.  
  
"They look like people, don't they? So close, so connected in a way only parents can be. He is making sure she is alright, you can tell how protective he is from that look in his eyes." Leyadriel then looked down at Legolas' eyes and saw in them the same feeling in Arod's glassy brown ones.  
  
"It's called love, Leyadriel." He told her as he pulled her on top of him, "And when a man is in love, suddenly the world is a cruel place and he will do anything to protect his love from harm."  
  
He fingered through her raven locks before meeting her lips and savoring them, really tasting them and knowing that he could kill the thunder, which roared just outside, if it threatened her.  
  
"I love you." He cooed in her ear and rolled them over so that he was on top. She stroked his cheek with her thumb absently before deciding that they needed to talk of something. Once elves found love, that love was unchanging and eternal. They had so much time together but with the presence of a baby horse near her, she could not help but think of a babe.  
  
"Do you want children?" She asked and the look of lust in his eyes faded at her question, this was a serious topic to bring up. He rolled off of her and laid on his back, she repositioned herself on top of him and rested her head on his chest, looking him in the eye.  
  
"Yes," he answered, "I always have desired a family, a large one."  
  
It was his guilty dream, the thing that he would dream of when nothing else in the world seemed worth a second thought, always the same dream. He was in a garden with a faceless beauty next to him, an infant in her arms, and at their feet played three or four fair headed elflings.  
  
"Do you realize that I might not be able to give you any?" She asked seriously, for her youth she was wise and knew when to summon that wisdom, probably a gift from her grandfather.  
  
"I think you are capable, miramin." He replied, not wanting to admit the possibility.  
  
Leyadriel gave him a scowl to chastise his reluctance, "The curse..."  
  
"Might pass, Im sinta, Im sinta!" He grabbed each cheek of her's in a hand so that his words were emphasized, "But we will not know unless we try. I would not forfeit a family because of an unproven fear." {I know, I know}  
  
She shook her head, "You do not know the horrors of that possibility, of that chance. It would be cruel to even chance it."  
  
"Your parents had four daughters after you, after they knew that the curse was present."  
  
"And I have always thought them fools for doing so."  
  
"Do you not understand why, melethnin?" He asked and she shook her head, "It is because they had such a powerful love for their children that they were willing to share that love with more even at the expense of having to witness another carry your burden. No parent wishes an ill on their child, but no parent would give up the child because of the illness."  
  
Taking his words to heart she nodded but her eyes took on a haunted look, "You cannot understand the horrors, Legolas, no one can. A fact that I both cherish and curse. I am alone in my pain which makes me feel abandoned, but I am at least assured that no one else suffers. I would not dare risk passing this to anyone, not even my enemies and certainly not my child."  
  
Legolas saw in the depths of her cerulean pools the looming shadows of hungry orcs approaching an elfling tethered to the ground, unable to defend herself from their abusive and molesting hands. He saw Leyadriel's youth go by in a horrifying second and could all but hear her screams, then he began to understand why she was hesitant of children. Why she would not give someone as dear to her as a son or daughter the curse of those looming ghosts prepared to kill her on their whim.  
  
He caressed her scarred cheek, a scar that had been given to a three year old before she could ever comprehend its horrendous placement or presence. Outside the rain hammered onto the ground and saturated everything. Leyadriel did not sleep but Legolas faded into dreams within an hour, she watched him sleep and rocked back and forth, waiting for the rain to stop so that they could leave. She stole a look at the small family beside her, Du-amrun was asleep and Arod was awake, keeping watch over what must be the horse equivalent of his pregnant wife. She scooted over closer to the white and gray horse and petted him. He snorted at first but eventually allowed her to scratch his ears and feed him an apple from the tree.  
  
As he ate his treat she spoke to him, "How lucky you are, Arod, a wife and a child. And both as beautiful as you are, such offspring two horses will have, I think I may be more anxious for the foal then you."  
  
He snorted and shook his head as if disagreeing to her statement so she laughed and continued, "Alright maybe not more excited then you but I am certainly excited. I would think, though, that I will have about ten more months to wait." She paused as he finished his apple, "I wish that I could have what you two have, I wish I could love without fear or hesitation and I wish I could marry and have children as carefree as you, tis my greatest fear that I shan't be able to. I am more afraid of that then I am of dying."  
  
Arod cuddled his head into her as a sign of comfort before he settled it back against Du-amrun. Leyadriel smiled and sighed at them before laying her head on Legolas' chest and staring at the stars through the gaps in the trees, but she could only see storm clouds. It was two hours after dawn before the heavy rain ceased and by that time Legolas had been awake for a few hours and was grooming the horses as Leyadriel watched the rain slow its assault on the ground.  
  
Then she jumped on Du-amrun's back and Legolas mounted Arod as Leyadriel urged the mare through the marshlands that the weather had made the plains into she said, "A great gloom is upon my heart....we must hurry."  
  
And so they traveled as fast as they could, the horses bolting through the wet ground fast but with great difficulty. Back in Gondor, Aragorn touched the servant that was tending to him on asked politely, "Would you please send in my youngest daughter? I would like a word with her."  
  
His voice was a little softer then it used to be and the servant's heart broke as she went to fetch Galaniel. She knocked at the princess' door, "My lady, your father wishes a word with you."  
  
Galaniel's face paled and she resembled a ghost of a person as she walked into her father's chambers. He smiled at her and motioned for her to sit on the edge of his bed.  
  
"My pretty little Ranger-child." He cooed at her, admiring her and how much she had grown up, "My little girl, my youngest princess. I love you so much; I need you to know how proud I am of your strength and of your steady head on those shoulders."  
  
Galaniel's heart fell and tears came to her eyes but her father shooed them away with his thumb, "Now, no tears from my brave one, this is a small trial in your life."  
  
"Nay, it's the biggest one I have faced."  
  
"That is because you are young yet, Galaniel, but you are very strong and in time the pain will fade into numbness and you shall carry on." She nodded as the tears began to fall and he continued, "I wanted you to know that when you are older you have my full permission to join the Rangers, they would gratefully accept a child of mine be they son or daughter."  
  
Galaniel nodded but she could not control her sobs and she wrapped her arms around her father, hugging him tightly so that she would not have to let go, "You cannot leave me, I have not had enough time with you ada, Im anta lle sii' ada. Don't go." {Daddy, I need you now daddy.}  
  
He shushed her and rubbed her back in a soothing circle, "Im meleth lle ilyamenie a' ten'oio pen nethamin." He kissed her forehead, "Im feithuva ten'lle."" {I love you always and forever my little one. I will be waiting for you.}  
  
She nodded, "Im meleth lle ada." {I love you daddy.}  
  
She kissed him, "Namarie, ada." {Farewell, daddy.}  
  
"Namarie, Galaniel, pen nethamin." {Farewell Galaniel, my little one.}  
  
As she was leaving he barely whispered, "Tell Celebrene I would like to see her."  
  
Galaniel nodded brokenheartedly and went to find her sister. Upon opening Celebrene's door Galaniel said two words, "It's begun."  
  
"Mani caela?" {What has?} Celebrene asked worriedly taking in her sister's appearance.  
  
"The beginning of the end, Adar would like to talk to you."  
  
A/N- Will they make it in time? Who did poison that messenger (known as Mr. Fedex- lol)? 


	32. Conversations

From: LioraJean ()  
  
Legolas Greenleaf saw the child and was noted as saying, when she was barely a year old, "Such beauty the world has never seen nor shall ever see again. She is unsurpassable."rnrnNone in the race of elves or men had been as beautiful as Luthien. Please do not stomp on canon, it's most annoying.rnrnI think I'll stop reading now. That just ruined the whole thing, and it also SCREAMED Mary Sue.  
  
A/N- Sorry, I laughed when I read this and thought I'd share it with everyone, jeez some people can't take creativity can they? Does she think that the fact that she stopped reading is a mortal stab to my pride? *Sarcastically* Oh, however shall I sleep at night now that LioraJean has stopped reading my fic, o woe is me!  
  
Chapter 32- Conversations  
  
Celebrene walked towards her father's bedroom as though she had lead in her feet, every step was heavy and slow until Silmarwen came up behind her, "If you go too slow, you'll loose your chance."  
  
At that time Celebrene hurried into her father's bedside and kneeled reverently to hear his words. He brought a hand to her face and pushed a strand of chestnut hair behind her ear, "Celebrene, my daughter."  
  
Just these words made her cry, "Shh, iel, don't cry. This is not a final farewell." {Daughter}  
  
"You cannot leave me father, you cannot leave yet....I want more time with you." She whimpered.  
  
"There are some things in life that we cannot always have, our time together is nearly at a close but I do not regret it. I have loved every second of your life from the beginning until now and every second I have loved you. That shall never change, my daughter, not my love for you. I shall be waiting for you in our Halls, and one day you shall have your own children and you shall bid them good-bye and you will then be with me again. You shall never truly understand the depth of my love for you, for all of my children, but you do know that I love you dearly."  
  
"Im meleth lle ner, adar." {I love you more, father.} Her tears overwhelmed her words.  
  
"I want you to live a full life, my Celebrene. You are such a caring daughter, one day you shall make a very loving mother."  
  
"But I shall never find a husband that will be as good a father as you are, ada. I love you." {Daddy.} With a final embrace and kiss, Aragorn asked that Silmarwen be sent in.  
  
Meanwhile Leyadriel and Legolas were racing through the mud, their horses were getting stuck in it and the travel was difficult. They were elvish riders, with horses elven trained, and on normal circumstances would've been an hour from Gondor, currently they were two at best. It was going to be a great trial to make it there. They were approaching the first people since leaving Ithilien and slowed their canters to a walk.  
  
"Pardon me, good folk, but is there any news of my father, the King Elessar?" She shouted.  
  
They awed at she and her elven companion for a moment before an old woman spoke up, "Aye, my princess, we have news but at least four days old."  
  
"What is it?"  
  
The lady bowed her head sadly, "Your father was gravely ill, near passing, but they say he has held on."  
  
"This was four days ago?!" Leyadriel was in a state of disbelief and she turned her fair face to Legolas, worry etched onto both their features, "We may be too late."  
  
With that they sped through the town, taking advantage of the less muddy roads now. Leyadriel leaned down and whispered in Du-amrun's ear, "I know that I ask a great task of you, my friend, especially now, but I need to reach my father within the hour."  
  
The horse seemed to understand her master's distress and looked to Arod before neighing loudly, both horses taking off faster then they had ever run before. But would it be enough?  
  
Silmarwen opened the door and walked over to her father, sitting on his bedside and smiling sadly at him, the smile held years behind it.  
  
"What are you thinking of?" He asked her.  
  
"I am remembering when I was a child and was too small for a horse, but I wanted one. So you would take me on your shoulders and run around neighing and snorting like a stallion until I was eight and then you got me a horse of my own."  
  
"You named that horse oddly, as I recall." Aragorn smiled fondly at the memory.  
  
"I named him Second, for you were my first horse ada. Second would always be in your shadow." She held back the tears that longed to fall and her father took her hand in his.  
  
"Silmarwen, you know that my love for you is deep and unending. I would never wish harm to come to you and I wish I could have many more years of playing horse to you, but I think we both know that those years are over in more then one way."  
  
She nodded sadly, "I do not want to accept it, but I know that I am facing my last words with you."  
  
"Is there anything that you wish to tell me?"  
  
"Just that I wish you would not go....I would wish my own children to know you and not your legend."  
  
"The legend shall be greater to know then the man, the legend shall never age and never wither away. But I wish that I would live to see the children of my children."  
  
"I hope they will be like you father, noble and brave and strong and caring."  
  
"And rowdy, filthy, loud and obnoxious." He finished, "Ask your uncles what kind of child I was, do not want children like I."  
  
"Fine then, I wish for grown sons like you, ada, for there would be none finer." She held her head up proudly before bending down to kiss her father's head, "I do not want to linger, you will wish to speak to the others, but I need to tell you how much I love you."  
  
He embraced her for a moment, "I love you too, ielnin." {my daughter}  
  
As they pulled apart he clasped her hand, "Such a strong woman you are, so strong. My Silmarwen, I shall miss you."  
  
"I shall see you in the stars ever night, ada, and one day I shall join you." She promised, kissing his hand and going to the door.  
  
His voice was low, "Send in Elaren."  
  
Leyadriel looked to Legolas in a panic, "Legolas my heart feels numb."  
  
"Why do you think?" He asked.  
  
Her face looked stricken as though faced with a great horror, "We will not make it in time."  
  
"We will!" He promised and urged Arod on even faster, Du-amrun catching up quickly.  
  
But the sun in the sky told them that they'd been riding nearly a half hour, and somewhere in his heart he knew to go too much longer would be too late, yet he had faith, great faith. Surely, Leyadriel would get to Gondor to find Aragorn well, or recovering....at worst perhaps fading as she arrived! He prayed not, he prayed that they find him still well enough to hear her speak, and he. He wished to tell Aragorn that he broke his oath, but that he would not give up his treasure. He wanted, he needed, Aragorn to bless their union or he felt that all his honor and dignity would die with the King's friendship to him.  
  
A/N- sorry its short but I have to study too, so short chappys and studying work betta then long chappy and no studying. Reviews? Comments? Questions? WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO MR. FEDEX?? (That shall soon be revealed) 


	33. Elaren's Final Promise

A/N- Alright, I'll try to do this, damn the lunch period being only 20 minutes!!  
  
Chapter 33- Elaren's Final Promise  
  
Silmarwen came out of Aragorn's chambers with a steely look in her eyes and fiercely gripped Elaren's arm, "Do not make this more difficult, Elaren, or you shall find every hair on your pretty head in your fireplace come tomorrow morning."  
  
Elaren snarled at her, "Let go of me, little one."  
  
Silmarwen let go with a growl and stepped aside so that her sister could see their father. Elaren's golden locks flowed down her back and she held her head proudly, not a tear could be seen marring her marble white face and she stood beside her father's bed as though it were a chore, he had made himself her enemy that day in the garden.  
  
"Elaren, ielnin." {my daughter} He spoke in a raspy voice, "Sit, please."  
  
"I'd rather not." She looked at her nails rather then her father and he took both her wrists in his hands and forced her to sit.  
  
"Elaren, we have not been close recently, I feel you slipping farther from me everyday." He paused, she still would not look at him, "You are so beautiful, little one, so beautiful, but you must realize that your face is not everything in your life. I know that you and Leyadriel have been at odds for years, I know that she is not here as of yet but I want you to promise me that when you meet her next, you shall reconcile. I need to go to my final sleep knowing my two gems are friends and not enemies."  
  
Elaren stood, "You ask me something I could never give you. I'll send in Eldarion now."  
  
She turned to leave but Aragorn pulled her back towards him with her wrist turning red in his grasp, "Elaren! You will ask Leyadriel for forgiveness or so help me I shall march back to this Earth to make you!"  
  
Leyadriel pulled her arm from her father with all the might that she could muster and snarled, "The only dreams a ghost can haunt are those of your Precious Elfling! I beg you try to haunt me! Curse another child! Damn another soul! Your blood has done so once why not your own spirit? I curse the day I was born your daughter and her sister. May Sauron himself claim me if I ever beg her forgiveness!"  
  
Elaren ran from the room leaving her father with a broken shell of a heart, Elaren was a fire he would never tame; he just hoped that in his absence she would not cause too much mischief. Eldarion sulked in, swimming through the wake of his sister's rage and kneeled by his father's bedside, "I will take care of her, ada. I will take care of them all."  
  
Aragorn grasped his son's arm, "I know you will, Eldarion, and I trust you explicitly to rule both the Kingdom of Gondor and the Kingdom of the Telcontar Family. You are a man now, my son, full grown in heart and mind and body and I trust you in your skills. I have great faith in your decisions, know that I have unwavering belief in you, whether or not I am here to support you, know that my love for you, forever in your heart, is a sign of that faith."  
  
Eldarion touched his heart with his fist and then kissed it and touched it to his father's heart, "Diolla lle, adar." {Thank you, father.}  
  
"Eldarion, you are the eldest, you must watch over them all now. Watch your mother, she will not understand the bitterness of mortality until the end for me has come. Elaren shall be a trail for you, of this I am sure but you must see that she causes no harm in her rashness, please my son succeed with her where I have failed."  
  
There Aragorn paused and motioned to a drawer by his bedside, "Open it."  
  
Eldarion opened it and pulled out a pale pink dress, so pale that it looked like a glowing silver white of pearl. It was made in elvish fashion and on top of it laid a crown and a necklace that Eldarion felt he should remember.  
  
"The jewels were from Galadriel, to your sister when she was a child and Galadriel sailed she left your sister as the heir to the Elves. These jewels will crown her, they will." Aragorn began, tracing his fingers over the intricate designs of the necklace before moving them to the soft fabric of the gown, "This I had made for her. After long years of fearing its coming, I now accept that Leyadriel will choose immortality, that she will become an elf. This is my gift to her, for her coronation, that she might look as beautiful to everyone else as she looks to me everyday."  
  
Eldarion held the dress to his breast, "I shall hope that I need not give this to her, that you might be with us when she arrives."  
  
"I fear she will not be here in time, my son, but I shall hope as you hope." Aragorn's eyes had unshed tears in them, "Please tell her, if she does get here in time, that I love her and I am sorry for all I have done to her. Tell her that whatever she will do is her free choice and has my blessing as long as it makes her happy. Tell her that I love her, tell her I am sorry, for she will believe you if you tell her."  
  
A tear fell down Eldarion's cheek, "She would believe you too, adar, and she would tell you that she was angry and said things she did not mean to say and that she loves you dearly, more so then she ever showed."  
  
Aragorn kissed his son's hand and gave him the ring that he had worn all the years of his youth and his travels, the ring of two serpents and a ruby signifying his birthright, and his son's.  
  
Eldarion bowed his head and tried to leave the room without tears but he failed, he could not help the shed of them at his father's coming demise. As Eldarion carried the dress and jewels as carefully as though they were a babe, Arwen swept into the room, all of her grace and poise neglected in favor of a widow's march, the march of a woman who's heart is an empty shell of what it was.  
  
She laid down beside her husband and wrapped her milky arms him, she kissed him and laid her head on his shoulder, tears making her sapphire eyes look like rain clouds, "Im meleth lle, Estel." {I love you, Hope.}  
  
"Im meleth lle Undomielnin." {I love you, my Evenstar.} He responded, "And now comes the time that you were long warned of but I fear not prepared for; no one can ever be prepared for it. I am mortal, have known since birth that this was my fate and yet I was angry and confused when my mother was taken from me."  
  
Arwen's slim shoulders shaking and she told him, "I know what will happen, my love, you shall be robbed from me...then I shall join you."  
  
Aragorn rested his head on top of hers and simply said, "Finally time together. As painful as it is, it shall be the first time since Eldarion was born that we don't have to plan around the children."  
  
Arwen smiled sadly, "As long as I am with you, melethnin, children are only an additional joy."  
  
He smiled, kissed the top of her head and spoke his last words to her, "You are so beautiful my Evenstar, my Arwen. I love you."  
  
"I love you." She replied, if he heard her he made no indication, he just sighed contentedly and closed his eyes, falling into a peaceful sleep in his wife's arms. Arwen closed her eyes against her tears and listened to his heart beat.  
  
It was a little fast at first.....  
  
Leyadriel's heart suddenly sank, plummeted in her chest. Underneath he Du- Amrun simply stopped running and Leyadriel fell forward off of the beast who looked distinctly overworked. Leyadriel and Legolas had just rode into the gardens and Legolas jumped off of Arod to see if Leyadriel was alright but she was already running as fast as she could towards the palace. She sped through the corridors...  
  
A little slower now, the sound was slower, thump....thump....  
  
Leyadriel tried to take the stairs two at a time but in her haste she fell down the flight and hit the side of her face, right on the scar that she had received years ago and from the corner of her eye to her collarbone she was bleeding as she had years ago. Legoals tried to make her slow her pace so he could see what had happened but she tossed him off of her and raced up the stairs...  
  
Thump........thump.....  
  
Leyadriel could see her sisters and brother in each others arms crying outside her father's chambers. When they saw her they looked at her in awe as though she were a bloodied ghost of the sister they remembered. Legolas was just behind her.  
  
Thump.....  
  
Arwen's tears fell on the silent chest of her husband and she kissed him for the last him before getting up and walking towards the door. As she did someone ran into her.  
  
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!" Leyadriel screamed, her mother only saw black hair and blood and instantly knew, she wrapped her arms around Leyadriel who was in a state of hysterics. But the maiden would not be comforted, she threw her mother against the door frame and when Legolas caught her by her arms to pull her away from her father's body she turned sharply and slapped him so hard that his head snapped to one side.  
  
She ran to her father's side crying, "N'uma! Ada! Ada!! Quen a'nin!!! Saes ada! Saes! Ada! Uume cel ada! Saes! Uume cel-ello nin!" {NO! Daddy! Daddy! Speak to me! Please daddy! Please! Daddy! Do not go away daddy! Do not go away from me!"  
  
Her tears choked her for a minute and as she struggled to breathe Legolas took a step forward but Arwen put a hand on his arm to stop him, shaking her head gravely. He consented to her agreement but his eyes never left Leyadriel's shaking form, his eyes never stopped hearing her whimpers of grief.  
  
Leyadriel's voice was a hoarse whisper as she lamented her father's death, "Im meleth lle adar, Im hiraetha, ikotane hiraetha." {I love you father, I'm sorry, so sorry.}  
  
Leyadriel cried at Aragorn's bedside until the tears made her head ache and she simply held his hand in hers and felt the guilt and sorrow wash over her. Her blood was soaking the bed sheets, soon all the white was red and even her father's clothes and skin became tainted with the color. At one point in her grief, the blood loss made her sleep, or maybe it was the tears, maybe it was the combination of the two. Legolas had been kept at bay by Arwen who insisted that her daughter grieve on her own but when the girl was asleep he carried her to her own chambers hastily so that her wounds could be tended to.  
  
As the nurses fussed and Arwen and Legolas lent a hand to Leyadriel's injury, which was beginning to bruise as well as bleed, Elaren sulked to the outermost garden of the palace. This garden was nothing like Leyadriel's favorite garden, the only plant that prospered here was the poisonous foxglove, which was Elaren's favorite flower. She picked on from its stem and set the bud in her hair.  
  
Behind her a voice cackled, "Be careful, princess. The nectar of that plant is very poisonous, it is also sweet to taste and is said to remedy fatigue....only to cause death afterwards. To not be fooled by its beauty and its honey-taste."  
  
"I am well aware of its qualities, Pengwaith, which is why I gave it to you so that your spy in the camp would see that that messenger never got to Leyadriel!"  
  
"I swear on my life that it was carried out!" Pengwaith wondered why Elaren looked so angry.  
  
"Obviously not! She is here!"  
  
Pengwaith looked towards the window of the palace that was Leyadriel's and saw so much busy work inside that he knew she had to be home; only she ever caused that much ruckus in the palace. He smirked evilly and wrapped an arm around Elaren's shoulders, "My dear Pheidan, we shall simply have to work around her."  
  
Elaren laughed maliciously, idea upon idea already forming in her mind.  
  
A/N- download "Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves" by Cher Excellent song! What do you think?? Review please! 


	34. Blessings and Curses

Chapter 34- Blessings and Curses  
  
Finally, Leyadriel was tended to and sleeping, they thought this a bad idea but she did need some rest. Legolas kept looking to her worriedly and it frightened Arwen the intensity with which his concern showed, she took him by the arm, to catch his attention, "Legolas, mani naa ta? He naa tereva." {Legolas, what is it? She is fine.}  
  
He shook his head, "I am sure of few things in my life, Arwen, but I am sure that she has never had a pleasant time of sleeping, she is anything but fine."  
  
Arwen knew there was something else, "What else is bothering you? I know there is something else, my friend."  
  
Legolas' big blue eyes turned to her and he took her hand, "Come with me."  
  
He led he to the stables where the horses had been taken, Du-amrun had been washed down with six buckets of cold water before she was relieved of the overheatedness she had suffered. He petted her, she ignored him more or less being far more interested in the hay and oats she was ravenously consuming, her strength was near robbed of her. Nearby Arod kept whinnying to her nervously, he, like his master, could not be sure of his beloved's state unless he was next to her. Legolas let the stallion out of his pen and allowed him to go in with the mare. She ignored him as well, the food being far more interesting at the time. Arwen laughed at the expression of frustration that Arod seemed to where on his face and asked, "Why did you let him in with her? Du-amrun always hated other horses in her stall."  
  
Legolas and Arwen both walked into the stall and Legolas petted down the mare with his hand until he reached her belly, which he patted fondly before responding to Arwen, "She's expecting, that's why he's in her stall and also why she threw Leyadriel before we reached the palace. She's already a very protective mother."  
  
Arwen's eyes looked as happy as they could be on this unhappy day, "How long?"  
  
"About a month, as far as we can tell." The two walked out of stable and the burden on his heart was about to kill him so he took Arwen's hand in his and sat her on the edge of a bridge that was over a small waterfall.  
  
"Arwen?"  
  
"Uma?" {Yes?}  
  
"I need to tell you something very important, I need you to listen to what I say and tell me the truth, the truth of what you feel about it."  
  
"Alright, mellon." {friend.} Her brows furrowed at the seriousness in his voice, she hoped that the load of his words would not be too great for her heart could not take more ill news, it was still trying to deny and accept that Aragorn was gone from her.  
  
Legolas took a deep breath, "I know not how else to say this except bluntly.."  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"I love Leyadriel." Arwen's eyes widened in shock, "She has professed a love for me as well and this is something we have acted on. Aragorn was against it but I had hoped that he had changed his mind, sadly I shall never know. But you are the last parent she has; I would be most honored if you allowed me to bind to your daughter."  
  
Arwen's head was dizzy and the world around her spun, she sat down on the balcony, Legolas sat next to her understanding her shock but awaiting an answer....  
  
He feared what it might be.  
  
A/N- I'm a bit wicked aren't I?? It's the finals, they r making me evil! 


	35. Consideration

A/N- A Piccy of Le! Finally! Drawn by my friend. http:// www. geocities .com /imposter_art /ley.jpg  
  
Just copy the link in, if I didn't put the spaces in it wouldn't show up for some reason  
  
Also I have two new stories, if you go to my profile they will be listed. They are about Pirates of the Caribbean and Orli's rentboy.  
  
Chapter 35- Consideration  
  
Arwen's heart was heavier then it had ever been. Aragorn was dead, he had slipped peacefully out of life just last evening as she held him in her arms. At that moment when his heart stopped, his breathing stopped she knew he was dead, there was no way to live without either a pulse or a breath and yet she had not fully believed that he was dead, a part of her didn't comprehend it....couldn't comprehend it. His body was still warm, a mask of life lingered in the blush on his cheeks. She could still feel his kiss on her skin, could still feel his beard tickle her..surely he was not gone. She was numb with denial, pain and disbelief when she heard the first scream from her daughter.  
  
Leyadriel had arrived a mere second before her father had passed; though Arwen was in a deep state of shock, Leyadriel's raging grief bought her back to reality. For hours she watched her elfling, who was bleeding from a fall on the stairs, cry, speak, plead, and bed to her father who was beyond hearing her or responding. Leyadriel eventually sank into a deep sleep and Legolas tenderly but speedily carried her to her rooms to be tended. The way Legolas had been acting had caught Arwen's attention; it was more devoted then usual, more caring, less patient then it used to be. Every time she flinched or moved, when her sobs racked her entire body, he would try to go to her, try to comfort her but every time Arwen told him that she needed time alone to grieve, needed to be by herself. Although Arwen was getting worried about her wound. She was also worried about Legolas, his own pain, his own grief was deep and it was seen in the depths of his eyes making them heavier and darker, drowning out the light in them. He ignored his pain though, pushed it aside and tried to end Leyadriel's suffering.  
  
Finally the elfling's will gave out, or her body gave in, because she fell into a deep state of unconsciousness. Legolas cradled her in his arms and raced her to her own chambers to be treated. At one point he was the one wrapping her face in bandages and dabbing medicines against her cuts and her bruise. After all of that was done, he even brushed her hair from too many days of riding and too many hours of grief and kissed her forehead. Arwen saw the tender way he looked at her and became worried. She asked Legolas to tell her what was wrong, she wanted to know but he put off telling her what she wanted to know. He told her about Arod fathering Du- amrun's foal before he broke the real news to her.  
  
He was in love with Leyadriel. According to him Leyadriel loved him as well. He wanted her blessing, he seemed to be waiting for it.  
  
"Have you slept with her?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
Arwen closed her eyes, this was almost more then she wanted to know. She swallowed the lump in the throat and grabbed her heart.  
  
"Mellon, saes, this is much to handle, too much." Was all that she said.  
  
Legolas nodded, "Im sinta, mellon. Im hiraetha." {I understand, friend. I'm sorry.}  
  
He walked away from her leaving her to her thoughts and her grief. Arwen simply collapsed to her knees and let a tear fall for every thought of pain, grief, confusion, frustration, and denial that was encased in her heart.  
  
Legolas turned away from her, at least she knew and his heart was happy of that. Legolas went back into the palace and into Aragorn's chambers. There a maid was just finishing pulling fresh sheets over the bed where Leyadriel's blood had stained the last ones. When she saw the elven prince she bowed respectfully and left the room.  
  
He approached the corpse and kneeled, kissing Aragorn's hand remorsefully, "I am so sorry, my friend, so sorry that I betrayed my word to you. I love your daughter, I love her with all my heart. I cannot, will not, give her up now, Aragorn. Forgive me, please."  
  
A/N- That's it for now, I don't have the energy to write anymore, I am sick and if I forget the email I'm sorry. I have games tomorrow that I have to play in so I have to nurse myself back to health. Its nothing big, don't worry. BTW- Check out my new fics! Please?? 


	36. Night's Knight

Chapter 36- Night's Knight  
  
Leyadriel's eyes squinted shut and a slight tightening came to her lips but not a whimper of pain had yet come and she had been asleep for two hours, a personal record. Legolas had finished his last words to Aragorn and now sat on the edge of her bed, watching her sleep and admiring her beauty, damning the demons that haunted her.  
  
But little did he know that they were not haunting her this night, not as they had in nights past.....  
  
Leyadriel could see the orcs grunting and howling and trying to get at her but there was a ring of fire around her and they were unable to cross it. Fire they could manipulate but not fire such as this. This fire was white as marble and tickled her skin when she touched it, though it must have burned them when they did for they had horrible welts on their skin. She laughed at their enraged faces, they couldn't get to her! They couldn't touch her!  
  
Her laughter turned to tears of joy spilling down a smile and then she jumped when a hand touched her shoulder, "Please do not cry my daughter."  
  
Leyadriel looked up at the voice and gaped at who she saw......  
  
A scream came from Leyadriel's lips and Legolas immediately turned complete focus on her, trying to find the reason for the scream. Though it did not sound painful, it sounded surprised. He did not fully understand why not so much as a bruise came to her skin.  
  
Arwen ran in and saw Legolas on her bed, holding her hand and looking for wounds but there were none to be found. The Evenstar asked, "What happened?"  
  
Legolas shook his head disbelievingly, "She has been crying and she screamed, but that is all. I can find no injury on her."  
  
Arwen sat on the other side of the bed and took Leyadriel's other hand, "They must torturing her mind now, instead of her body."  
  
Legolas nodded sadly, he wished that his love would be neglected by these horrors but they never relented! Never stopped!  
  
Meanwhile Leyadriel was on her knees and crying happily and her scream had been out of sheer surprise and delight.  
  
Before her stood Aragorn, much as he looked when he was a young man. He knelt beside Leyadriel and lifted her face so he could see it more clearly, "Why do you cry, Leyadriel? I thought that you would like this freedom."  
  
Leyadriel could not speak, she did not trust her lips with more then a single word, "Ada!"  
  
She flung her arms around him in a wild embrace that he returned with equal fierceness and they held each other for a minute before Leyadriel pulled gently away and put her hands on his face. She felt the familiar scratch of his beard stubble against her palm and the scar that was on his right cheek from a duel with Eldarion some 20 years before, she felt his dry lips press a kiss to her hand, "This is no trick, iel, none at all."  
  
Tears salted her words, "How? How is this possible...your, your dead."  
  
"Precisely." He smiled lovingly as he tucked a strand of midnight behind her peaked ear.  
  
She gave him a puzzled expression to which he responded, "Only the dead may haunt your dreams, my little one, those that were connected to your blood."  
  
Leyadriel nodded understandingly, she knew this was her father; anything else would've hurt her by now. Nonetheless she was afraid that this was a fleeting dream and quickly spoke to her father fearing that he would disappear.  
  
"Ada?"  
  
"Uma, iel?" {Yes, daughter?}  
  
"I tried to make it to you but the messenger never told me what was wrong, he was poisoned, ada, but I hurried as fast as I could.."  
  
"Shhhhh," He interrupted wrapping an arm around her shoulders and trying to soothe her fears, "It's alright Leyadriel."  
  
"I came there just as your breath left your body! I wanted to say so many things to you and I missed you by a moment! I'm so sorry ada! So sorry for all of the grief and pain I caused you! Me and my foolish foolish words! I am sorry that I yelled at you and said what I said but I was so angry, so angry and I spoke so rashly! Ada, ai Elbereth! I am so sorry!"  
  
Aragorn looked at his daughter and kissed her forehead, he had wanted to hear those words so badly and now he finally heard them, finally was his heart at peace, "Thank you, Leyadriel, thank you for saying that. You have no idea how much I wanted to hear those words."  
  
"I'm not done ada, nowhere near. I love you so much and I never told you. I fear you will never know the true depths of my love for you and my misery now that you are gone. And I now understand that you only wished to protect me, I understand it and I am sorry for all the grief I caused you."  
  
Aragorn's eyes were misted over and he clasped Leyadriel to his breast and said, "Our time is short now, dawn is coming little one. Please, know that I love you and since the day you were born there was never anything but love for you in my heart, no matter what either of us ever said or did."  
  
She nodded and clutched herself to him, now that she found her father again she was not willing to let him go! She had lost him once and twice she could not bare!  
  
He continued his words as he stroked his daughter's hair, "I must ask you to tell Legolas something, tell him that I was foolish with my parting words to him, tell him his heart is far wiser then I shall ever be. He will understand, our time together is not enough for me to explain it to you and I may not walk your dreams so long as you walk on Middle Earth after this, but he will understand your words and explain them to you."  
  
She nodded and he spoke, "Your mother will be joining me soon, iel, there is no gentle way to tell you that. Soon your mother will be with me and you shall be asked to step up to Galadriel's throne. I have had a present made for you for that occasion, a surprise, and know simply that I wish I could've seen my *immortal* daughter step up to one of her first great challenges of adulthood, but I will be in your heart and shall be a part of it nonetheless. I love you my daughter, and wish to protect you. This you know well, and I wish to finally give you the one thing I never could in life....I can help your treacherous dreams."  
  
Leyadriel's eyes lighted and he handed her a vial that was glowing so radiantly white that it hurt her eyes to look upon it, "Drink a small amount of this and this fire will keep you. Heed my warning though, this is all that you have in your possession. Use it sparingly and wisely."  
  
He kissed her forehead and she closed her eyes, feeling her father's lips on her for the last time and when she opened her eyes she was in her bedroom and her mother and Legolas were looking intently at her.  
  
Her eyes were red and hurt from the tears, but no harm had been done to her body. There was, also, the small addition of the white-fire vial in her palm. She clutched the small bottle to her breast and threw her arms around her mother then Legolas and held them each whispering, "He forgives me! He forgives me!"  
  
A/N- sorry for the shortness and the delay. I'm still a little sick and also my games have been cancelled and postponed and there is LOTS of rain involved. Also finals coming up so you may not hear form me for a week or so, don't worry! I haven't forgotten my Le or my fans but sometimes duty calls. ***IF LE'S PICTURE LINK DIDN:T WORK EMAIL ME AND I WILL SEND YOU THE LINK*** 


	37. Revelations

A/N- There were A LOT of false impression from the last chappy; its one of the few consistent things with the readers and the chappy… don't assume anything peoples. SHE WHO DARES: I need your email address honey I can't find it so that I can send you the picture of Leyadriel.  
  
I realize that I have been gone for sooo long..I AM SO SORRY  
  
Chapter 37- Revelations  
  
Leyadriel had never been so happy in her life, joyous tears streamed down her face. Arwen and Legolas couldn't understand what she was saying; things like 'He forgave me.' Or 'She will be gone soon too!' or 'It will happen, so soon, so soon.'  
  
After an hour she finally calmed, Legolas put a hand on each of her shoulders and looked her square in the face, "Please, melethnin, tell me what they did to you." {my love}  
  
The ethereal happiness in her eyes sank into the normal shine and she smiled broadly, "I'm sorry I've been so hysterical, melethnin, but for the first time ever...they've done nothing to me. They didn't do more then glare at me!!"  
  
She embraced him happily and he clutched her against him and inhaled deeply, Arwen looked on seeing the care between them and noting it.  
  
"How is that possible, miramin?" {my jewel} He breathed.  
  
"Adanin! Ada! He was there, in my dreams." {My father, daddy} Leyadriel pulled out of his embrace so she could look into his eyes, "He protected me from them. He gave me this liquid to protect me when he can't be there."  
  
She displayed the small bottle in her hands as proof. Legolas' eyes widened excitedly, "No more dreams, meleth? You're free?"   
  
At this Leyadriel's eyes fell and her joy was dampened, "Free until this vial is empty. A sip is salvation but when the bottle is dry the dreams return. He advised me to use it wisely and I fully intend on doing so."  
  
Arwen took the bottle from Leyadriel's hands and looked at it, "It shall be kept safe so that it cannot be tampered with."  
  
Leyadriel gripped her mother's arm sharply and looked at her with a stricken face, "Atar." {Mother.}  
  
The grief in her daughter's eyes passed to her a message without words that was so powerful and strong that Arwen was catapulted into the alert of a mother, "Iel, mani marte? Mani naa ta?" {Daughter, what happened? What is it?}  
  
"Lle, Atara, lle...lle naa fir." Leyadriel's voice was a pained whisper as she spoke the words. {You, mommy, you..you are mortal.}  
  
"Uma hin-nin?" {Yes, my child?} She asked not certain she wanted to know why her daughter, who had just been so happy, now looked so overly depressed.  
  
"Time is not merciful. I love you mother, I love you so much." Leyadriel pulled her mother into a fierce embrace and quickly ended it, tracing the dark bags under her mother's eyes with her fingertips tenderly, "I shall miss you so greatly, ataramin." {My mommy}  
  
Arwen's eyes gazed meaningfully into her daughter's, "How did you know?"  
  
"Adar told me." Leyadriel muttered and Legolas suddenly cut in, "Told you what?"  
  
Arwen's head bowed and she mumbled, "I am fading, mellon, fading from this world. Not in the sense of the elves, but I no longer find a reason to continue living without him………so I shall be with him soon."  
  
Legolas was shocked by this news, he had not expected this from the Evenstar...once his Evenstar and yet it was happening. If you looked closely, you could almost see it in the way the gray had seeped into her raven hair and how the sparkle was extinguished from her eyes, how the lines of her face had grown heavy and how even her presence had dampened. He swallowed the lump of ache that had formed in his throat and clutched Leyadriel's hand tightly, for her comfort and for his.  
  
Arwen saw the impact of the elvish prince and the deep seeded grief in her elfling and kissed each of their cheeks and said, "I shall find a safe place for my daughter's salvation." Then her jaw tightened, "I think that Elaren should not be told about this vial."  
  
Leyadriel and Legolas nodded gravely and a knock came to the door, Arwen opened it and Eldarion stood there, "May I see Leyadriel?"  
  
Arwen pressed a hand against her son's chest and said, "Speak with me fro now, my son, you may see your sister later."  
  
Despite his objections Eldarion was led away by his mother and Leyadriel was left alone with Legolas. She stroked his cheek and whispered, "My father told me to give you a message. I don't understand it but he said that you would. I know you are probably feeling far too many emotions right now, I will tell you later, meleth."  
  
He nodded numbly and tried to accept everything that had happened in his life over the past few days. He simply wanted to find a moment of peace. Of calm. Leyadriel smiled and kissed his temple, collected him in her arms and bid him lay beside her. He obeyed and he laid in her arms, beside her on her bed and she hummed on old tune he had never heard, it was soothing and soft. She just continued to pet his hair and hum until he was lulled into a state of complete calm. He smiled and wrapped his arms around her, "Diolla lle, meleth." {Thank you, love.}  
  
"Creosolle." {Your welcome.}  
  
He knew that Leyadriel's heart carried a burden like his own but he had been pampering her and comforting her, now it was his turn. Legolas kissed her cheek fondly and sighed, "What is it your father wanted you to tell me?"  
  
"That your heart was wiser then he would ever be. That you were right and he was a fool." She paused, "What did he mean?"  
  
Legolas' smile broadened but his joy at the words was somewhat lessened by the weight of all the grief and trails of recent days. He gripped her and pressed a long and loving kiss to her lips before peeling his mouth from hers and whispering to her, "At first, when I told your father how I felt about you, he forbid it. Told me I would not love you if I cherished my friendship with him I would keep my distance from you. Obviously I did not and I was consumed by grief when I realized I would not be able to confront him about it but now we have your father's blessing. Hopefully we will also gain your mother's, but having Aragorn's gives me warmth in my heart."  
  
Leyadriel listened and was shocked that her father would say such a thing to Legolas but she was not allowed to rebuke, Legolas pressed his forefinger against her lips to silence her.   
  
"He meant well, please do not disrespect his good memory." And Leyadriel nodded, but he would not remove his fingers from her lips, she kissed them and then they snaked around her neck and found her nape, pulling her towards him and holding her to his kiss.  
  
She laid her head on his chest once her lips were released and they simply rested and existed in each other's arms until the brightest sun rays leaked into her room. They were finally together, and for a moment pushed all of their strife from their lives and just held each other and loved each other and all the world's grief turned a blind eye upon them.   
  
Then a gentle knock came to her door and she heard her brother's voice ask politely, "Leyadriel, little sister, may I come in?"  
  
To be continued  
  
I am tired, it's a bit late so I am just ending here.  
  
WHAT DID You GUYS THINK? WAS IT WORTH THE WAIT???? SORRRRRYYYY 


	38. Love is meant to Bloom

A/N- I've been caught up with Pirates of the Caribbean so this one sort of got pushed to the side, but I have not forgotten you! Nor Le!  
  
On with the story!  
  
Chapter 38- Love is meant to Bloom  
  
Eldarion had been shooed away from his sister once already, his mother had told him to leave his sister and Legolas in solitude. He had agreed to her wishes and allowed himself to be led away but he felt as if he needed to speak with Leyadriel soon, needed to tell her Aragorn's last words to her soon. And so he came back to her door and stood before it, a soft singing was coming from inside and he heard the sound of sheets being moved, but the disturbances did not seem to indicate that anything was going on that he would regret walking in on.  
  
"Leyadriel, little sister, may I come in?"  
  
"Of course Eldarion."  
  
He entered to see his sister snuggled against Legolas' chest and being held by his arms... He was a bit surprised to say the least. He did not know of Legolas' love for Leyadriel nor her feelings for him. Needless, he made a valiant effort not to show his surprise and confusion on his face as he stepped inside, "I would like a private conversation with my sister about our father, Prince Legolas."  
  
Legolas made to get up but Leyadriel put a hand over his heart as if to make him stay but he took her hand in his and kissed it, saying, "I think I shall go to the gardens, it is time I dealt with some grief on my own, dearest. I leave you to your brother."  
  
She smiled sadly and nodded before kissing his cheek. He returned the motion before nodding affectionately at Eldarion and striding out the door. Leyadriel let out a sigh and sat up straight. As soon as the door was closed behind Legolas, Eldarion's eyebrows furrowed together in puzzlement and he motioned to the closed door and asked, "Did I interrupt something, Leyadriel?"  
  
Leyadriel shook her head as she grabbed a brush from her nightstand and began to brush her long midnight locks, "No, Eldarion, you did not. What is it you wished to tell me?"  
  
Eldarion shook his head to clear his mind before an affectionate smirk came on his face, "Would you like a surprise?"  
  
Leyadriel smiled and nodded. Eldarion extended his hand, "Put on a robe and you shall have one."  
  
Leyadriel leapt from her bed and wrapped a deep green robe around her shoulders and grabbed Eldarion's hand as if she were a happy four year old once more. He gave a small laugh and led his sister down the hall to his room. He was no fool, he knew that there was sadness buried in the blue depths but since she was hiding it, he wouldn't bring it up. When Leyadriel wished to talk, she would do so and if she wanted to talk to him, then she knew where to find him.  
  
Eldarion opened the door and bowed as he held it for her, she curtsied and laughed, "Diolla lle taren." {Thank you prince}  
  
"Creosolle, tarienamin." {Your welcome my princess}  
  
At this point he closed the door and crossed to his armoire, he opened it and reverently removed a small parcel wrapped in white silk and tied with a dark blue ribbon, he went down on one knee and presented the parcel to his sister saying, "Or perhaps I should say my *queen*?"  
  
Leyadriel cocked her head and untied the bow, it fell limply to the side of the parcel and then she unfolded the white silk and gasped as she saw what was there.  
  
"I never knew what happened to these..." She ran her fingers lightly over the surface of the crown and necklace, remembering well the day she had received them. Remembering her love of the meaning of them but the sadness that they meant that Galadriel had sailed West, leaving the elven throne, the dying empire, on Leyadriel's shoulders.  
  
Eldarion cradled the objects against his body and brought Leyadriel to the window seat and sat her there, the golden sunshine painting her skin and hair with morning's secret tale. She could see her reflection well in the glass, she saw Eldarion place the jewelry beside her with something she had yet to identify.  
  
As he placed the crown on her head, Eldarion muttered in a respectful whisper, "I wanted to show you what father wished you to have from him, he wanted his elven maid to be crowned as the most beautiful woman in Middle Earth. He said he wished his little girl to become the most beautiful *Elf* Queen of all the Ages."  
  
Eldarion placed the necklace of a mallorn blossom upon Leyadriel's breastbone before holding the dress out in front of him. She slowly turned and her mouth fell open in awe of the beautiful gown before her.  
  
"I don't recall this." She stood and traced the intricate designs laid upon the material which was so pale a pink that it seemed to be a pearl, it shimmered and shined as the light hit it and was cut in the style of the Elves. It was simple but so beautiful that you wondered how it was possible.  
  
"Father had it made for you, he wanted you to be crowned, Leyadriel, and he wanted you to be wearing this." Eldarion smiled as Leyadriel took the dress in her hands and hugged it against her body as if it were her father arisen from the grave.  
  
"Diolla lle adar." {Thank you father.} She whispered.  
  
*** At the same time***  
  
Legolas was strolling through the garden paths of the Gondorian Palace, they were nothing to those in Lorien or even Mirkwood, but they were steadily growing back to their former beauty. He was looking for one plant in particular. A plant that he saw in the paleness of Leyadriel's cheek.  
  
He sat on a bench and smiled at the flowers before him, a soft bud with light petals that he had loved for so long.  
  
'What's this?' Legolas thought as he looked at the rose bush next to the white one. For a moment he thought that it was another white rose bush but then he saw that it held blossoms of the palest pink. It was a young bush, the flowers upon it were small, not yet the robust size of the plant beside it but they would yet grow.  
  
He smiled as he caressed the gentle petals, they were as soft as a babe's skin and the same color. 'Perhaps a sign of new beginnings, perhaps our love is meant to bloom as these buds are.'  
  
Quiet footsteps came up behind him, wanting not to intrude on his solitude but having the need to, he shook his head and smiled sadly, "Uma, Arwen?" {Yes, Arwen?}  
  
The Evenstar sat beside Legolas and, upon seeing the small rose bush, gave a smile of distant recollection, "Aragorn loved that little bush, he had hoped to share it with Leyadriel.. at least she might still be able to see it."  
  
"Uma, re umuva meleth ta." {She will love it}  
  
"Im estel re umuva, Im estel re hir aman-or." {I hope she does. I hope she finds blessed days.} Arwen paused, "Im hiraetha, gurthanin umuva nwalya lye." {I'm sorry, my death will make you both ache.}  
  
"Met umuva manta ta, Arwen. Met rangwa lle uuma coi sii' Estel dona gurtha." {We will handle it, Arwen. We understand you cannot live now that Estel is dead.}  
  
"Diolla lle.. Diolla lle ikotane ner Legolas." {Thank you, thank you so much Legolas.}  
  
"Ta dona kai, Undomiel." {It is nothing, Evenstar.}  
  
"Ukai, ta dona ner lle rangwa." {Not nothing, it is more then you can understand.}  
  
Legolas bowed his head to show that she was right, he could not understand the pain Arwen was in, he could only glimpse it in his darkest hours.  
  
Arwen wiped a tear from her eye and took one of his hands in both if hers, "I have good news for you, Legolas, something to take your mind off of all the darkness that has been dwelling there."  
  
"Mani naa ta?" {what is it?}  
  
"Now that I am leaving, Leyadriel will be crowned. On his deathbed, Aragorn told Eldarion that he accepted that his daughter would become an elf, and that he wanted her to be a great Queen no matter how short her reign."  
  
"And she will be, a queen of stunning beauty and power." Legolas agreed.  
  
Arwen nodded, "But then I will go and she will be alone. Though she has studied all her life beside Eldarion to be a fit ruler, though she is a strong and brave and intelligent woman, I cannot leave her alone to rule whether those she rules are fading from this earth or not. She is my *daughter*, I do not want to see her harmed or shamed."  
  
"Im rangwa." {I understand.}  
  
"I was hoping that you would stay here with her, I know that you wished to travel with Gimli and return to Mirkwood and you yet can! But as a last favor to an old friend," At this Arwen looked Legolas in the eye with an iron-strong glare, "will you treat and respect my daughter as it is right for her to be treated and respected? Will you take care of her?"  
  
Legolas saw more meaning behind her eyes then her words let on, "I already do all that you ask, I have done it for years and I swear to you I shall never stop doing it. I love Leyadriel, I have ever and will ever treat and respect and care for her as she deserves."  
  
Arwen had tears behind her eyes, tears of joy as she kissed Legolas' cheek, "Then I leave her to you with no guilt on my heart."  
  
Legolas pulled Arwen into an embrace and whispered in her ear, "I will take good care of your daughter, my old friend."  
  
"I know you will." She replied.  
  
She pulled away from him and smiled, grasping his shoulders, "If you are interested in helping, there is a coronation to plan."  
  
He nodded and followed Arwen into the palace, neither of them had seen the figure lurking behind a dogwood tree.  
  
A single tendril of the brightest blonde hair floated down the front of a rouge cloak and a menacing voice echoed, "Yes, indeed, there is a coronation to plan."  
  
A/N- I've been getting a lot of reviews on my bad grammar and spelling and the only thing I can say in my defense is my grammar sucks because I think a lot faster then I type and I turn my spell check off because it always corrects all of the Tolkien terms in the story into words that don't make sense i.e. Legolas = Legless.  
  
*** BIG MEMO TO READERS*** If I get one more review on how he's a perverted maniac because he fell in love with her I'll let y'all write the friggin story! It's not like it's a grand age difference (hello Aragorn and Arwen, if I were her I would be freaked out that I was old enough to be his grandma four or five hundred times over!)  
  
Also, this is my story, if my situations or scenarios or ANYTHING DOWN TO MY POOR GRAMMAR offend you, I would like polite critism but ONLY ONE. People seem to have a major issue with sending me 8 or 9 emails on the SAME THING. Here's the deal, if I don't change it once, I probably won't change it twice so move on to another story of mine or to someone else cause I don't need to here you complain. I'll try to fix it it's not like I have a whole lot of free time to do any of this!  
  
That is my rant for the next month. Thankx!!!!!!!!!!  
  
PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN THIS WEDNESDAY!!!!!!!!! 


	39. Elaren's Plan

A/N- Thanks for everyone's encouragement. I realize that I'm more trouble then I'm worth but its just. its MY story. I thought it up and I wrote it down I think I did a good job so I feel like an idiot when people are like "You suck". Sorry. Here's the chappy! (We're getting kinda close to the end but then when its February Im like Yeah schools almost over)  
  
I also realize that that Author's Note Chapter was extremely rude of me but you caught me on an especially bad day when I posted it so posting it seemed like a good idea, but I'm still glad that I put it up so that people know I'm not some ignorant teenager writing this, I'm smart and I'm creative and damn you if you say I'm not.  
  
On with the story!!!  
  
Chapter 39- Elaren's Plan  
  
Elaren heard her mother's words to Legolas and had to agree. Legolas would treat Leyadriel like the spoiled little princess she was and he would dote on her day and night and pamper her. He would guide her when she needed guidance and he would make sure that Leyadriel felt every ounce of his love and devotion to her.  
  
Which was why Elaren's plans had to go into effect sooner then she initially thought. She was walking from the garden, where moments ago Arwen had given her blessing to Legolas and Leyadriel's relationship which, in Elaren's mind, meant that soon Legolas would ask Leyadriel to bind to him and Elaren could simply not allow this to happen. After all, he had been her's before Leyadriel's, she had been the first Telcontar he experienced and she had been pushed aside without so much as a second glance from him.  
  
She had always looked to him with such wonder and such adoration, he was the most handsomely formed creature on this Earth and she had known it for years. She dreamt of his face every night and every morning woke and looked beside her and found that he was absent from her side and it broke her heart a little more each time it happened. Leyadriel was not the only daughter of Arwen who spent many a night afraid of sleep but Elaren did not fear her dreams; Elaren feared waking from them to be hurt by their nonexistence. Though no one else knew it, she had once brought her favorite foxglove to her lips over her devastation that Legolas had used her and tossed her aside.  
  
Elbereth, to this day she could hear his words ringing in her ears, her own reply to them a mere cover-up for the immensity of the pain that cleaved her heart into a hundred pieces when he said them, "A kai! Cel sii'!" (And nothing! Go away now!)  
  
She had wanted to die that night, after leaving his chambers she had rushed through the corridors and into Ithilien's gardens, pressing the poisonous flower to her lips her own tears moistening the petals as she tried to decided to live with that rejection or to die with it. That night her pain was so great, her suffering unimaginable and all because he wanted her own sister, her own flesh and blood, the sister she had once held to close to her heart, the sister she had once loved so dearly; her pain was so immeasurable because Legolas wanted Leyadriel in his bed not she. And it had nearly been her death that night.  
  
That would not happen again, she swore it to herself, never again.  
  
She wrapped her cloak tightly around herself as she walked into the White City. A smile spread across her face and as her thoughts went over what was to happy she let out a giddy laugh. Then she came to a door, very much like all the others near it, and knocked, still laughing. There was laughter inside as well and the rustling of fabric before the door creaked open and a woman's face peeked out, "Who are you?"  
  
"I am here to see Lord Pengwaith, tell him it is Lady Elaren."  
  
The woman tramped off and did as she was told and within a moment a ruffled looking Pengwaith was wearing a scowl as he looked at Elaren, "You better have a very good reason for being here, princess."  
  
Elaren nodded and pushed her way inside, half of the woman's dress was on the floor and she quickly grabbed it and covered her bare chest with it. Obviously she had interrupted something but Elaren did not care. She threw a gold coin at the girl and giggled, "Get better clients, whore."  
  
The woman was pushed out the door barely clothed by the Pheidan and when she turned around she found a hand around her throat and an angry Pengwaith demanded, "That was my property for the rest of the night and unless you give me one very good reason you will be taking her place with or without your approval."  
  
Elaren nodded, "VERY good reason, trust me."  
  
Pengwaith released her throat; her good mood was not to be dampened even be threats of rape. The Lord saw her giddiness and smiled maliciously, "That good?"  
  
"Better." Elaren promised.  
  
"Do share, Pheidan." He motioned to a velvet couch that had previously occupied the whore but Elaren took it and Pengwaith the seat across from it, "Do share what can put such a radiant smile on your face?"  
  
"Guess." Elaren toyed, he would be so pleased to hear it but he would never guess what it was.  
  
"Leyadriel has died from her nightmares; they have finally slit her throat?"  
  
"I would not be here tonight if Legolas' bed was finally open to me again."  
  
"Has she been scarred so horribly that the Prince will never look on her again?"  
  
"Try harder these guesses are so far from the truth."  
  
"Your mother has forbid them to marry?"  
  
"I wish, try again."  
  
"I don't know." He admitted, "Tell me."  
  
"Mother agreed to let them marry, and Leyadriel's coronation is to be soon." Elaren smiled so broadly, her joy was so great.  
  
"So?"  
  
"So!"  
  
"How is this in any way, shape or form a good thing for either of us, Elaren?" He snapped.  
  
"Our patience has been rewarded, the opportune moment has arisen far earlier then we first expected." She cooed.  
  
Pengwaith smiled maliciously in expectation, "We get to have our fun early."  
  
"Yes we do."  
  
Pengwaith then ran down a hall and into a room where a rumpled bed stood in a corner by a window with drawn drapes, "When shall I be brought to the palace and what shall I wear?"  
  
Elaren pushed him out of her way and opened an armoire that was off to the left, she pondered the choices for a moment before selecting a dark crimson tunic with gold lining and velvet boots, "This. She gave it to you, did she not?"  
  
He held it up against his frame, eyeing it, "Aye, she did. Excellent choice." His tone turned into one of adoration and pleading and he screwed up his face into that of a man begging for a precious thing and acted to the air around him, "But my dearest, my darling! I have thought of you everyday! Look! I have kept everything you have ever given me and cherished it so! Every memory you share with me has been so sweet a honey to my mind that I crave it so for myself again! My dearest Leyadriel, please hear me!"  
  
He laughed evilly all of a sudden and all his pleading vanished from his tone, "When Elaren, when??"  
  
Elaren smirked, "Her coronation."  
  
Pengwaith quirked his head in confusion, "Don't you think that they will be wed before that? Now that your mother has given them her blessing do you not think that they will marry as soon as possible?"  
  
"Bind, my Lord, not marry *bind*. And no, I do not think that they will bind earlier then her coronation."  
  
"And why not?"  
  
"Because Leyadriel will want to meet Thranduil and the other Mirkwood heirs before becoming one of their family, she will want to embrace them as friends before embracing them as her family. She will also want to impress them, so she will be crowned before meeting them."  
  
"How can you be sure of this, Elaren?"  
  
"Because at one point of my life I wanted to be Leyadriel so badly that I began to act just like her and I know my sister well enough to know that she will do just as I say, may I be struck dead if she does not."  
  
"When do you think the coronation will be?"  
  
"Within the week, mother is leaving and she has to crown her so it will be rather soon."  
  
"I shall be in her bed within 2 weeks then, my own coronation I will place in three weeks, your sister's funeral in four."  
  
"And I shall place my binding to my love in two and a half; of course I'll not be able to send regrets back to Gondor when I shall be in Valinor."  
  
"Then both our beds are made, it seems."  
  
"Yes and soon we shall be sleeping in them."  
  
They both laughed darkly as they thought about the promising futures that they both were to have, within a month all would be so much different then it was this night.  
  
But in the palace, no one knew this and so plans for an upcoming coronation were being laid, everyone thinking this the beginning of wonderful times, not harsh ones.  
  
A/N- am I evil? Are you confused? I tried not to give away too many details of the plot but believe me I've been thinking it over and I'll WARN YOU NOW IT WILL NOT GO EXACTLY ACCORDING TO TOLKIEN FROM HERE ON (well its never been exactly like Tolkien but there's the warning so leave if your offended by my "canon raping" and leave now...now it gets WORSE bwahahahahahahaha) 


	40. Hello I'm Your Mind Giving You Someone T...

A/N- Ok, I am sorry beforehand, this will be a very confusing chapter. Read everything carefully and if you have to write down a timeline because flashbacks might begin to be a problem. MAJOR MUSE IS THE BAND IN THIS CHAPTER I HIGHLY SUGGEST DOWNLOADING IT SO THAT YOU CAN "feel" the chappy!

Chapter 40- Hello I'm Your Mind Giving You Someone To Talk To

*Playground school bell rings again  
rain clouds come to play again  
has no one told you she's not breathing?  
hello I'm your mind giving you someone to talk to  
hello  
  
if I smile and don't believe  
soon I know I'll wake from this dream  
don't try to fix me I'm not broken  
hello I'm the lie living for you so you can hide  
don't cry  
  
suddenly I know I'm not sleeping  
hello I'm still here   
all that's left of yesterday*

"Hello" – Evanescence

Behind his eyes the world was grey; it was an odd sensation to see darkness completely engulfing him. It was one of the few times in his life that he had ever slept with his eyes closed and Legolas found the sensation quite queer. To add to his confusion, though, he couldn't open them. It was as though he was stuck somewhere between sleep and awake and he couldn't really choose. For a time now, a prolonged time, he had been trying to move, trying to wake but found himself unable. He was becoming more and more panicked by the moment, what had happened that he was in this state? Why couldn't he get out of it?

Where was Leyadriel? Was she in the same condition?

The weak grip he had on thought was beginning to slip from him and he tried his hardest to fight it but found his heart unwilling to do so. His soul was in a state of alarm that he could not tear it from. For the first time in his long life he was to be a spectator to his body as it fought a foe he could not see. 

For the first time he was not in complete control and the sense was terrifying to him.

Perhaps, he thought, this is somewhat like mortality. Perhaps this is why humans are always dreary and downcast; because they know that the time will one day come when a force they cannot combat will rip them, whether placidly or violently, from all they ever knew and loved. Maybe this is why so many humans would deny war and threats of it until the last moment, because they knew that going to war could bring that age-old battle to them faster. For the first time in his life, Legolas was glimpsing what the burden of mortality might be, he began to realize his helplessness, his weakness, and especially the long amount of time (which he could not exactly place being completely unconscious for a period before his long semi-wakening) that had passed since he had gone into Leyadriel's chambers.

The memory was the only candle he had to cling to in this damp, dark night he was trapped in:

*Flashback, an unknown amount of time*

A week of preparations had gone into Leyadriel's coronation and that seemed a pity to Legolas. His own crowning as a Prince, happening at his coming of age when he turned 50, had taken fifteen years to plan; to him the seven days and nights of planning and decorating and inviting of guests seemed completely undeserving of Leyadriel. He had scarcely seen her at all, having been so involved in the coronation that he had neglected the one to be crowned. He would see her but she would be coming out of a dream and in need of tending, or she would be walking down the same corridor as he. It was unfair, he knew, both of them were at a hectic and difficult time in their lives and they ached for each other's company but if she was going to be crowned by her mother, then their private time had to be sacrificed.

'So is the life of a ruler,' He lamented once during that brief time, 'they must always sacrifice themselves and their loved ones for the better of their people who are more often then not thankless and craving more.

'But tis our bed, made for us. Its very threads run parallel to our veins, which carry our blood. This hideous circle of self-sacrifice for others is as much a part of me as my mother or father are and in an odd way I enjoy it. As does she, it is deeper in her veins then mine even, an ancient craving to be the one to hold sway over all of those lives as though they were mere pebbles in one's hand to be thrown at one's will wherever one pleased. But the real joy comes from the resisting of throwing those stones; the real joy comes from being a parent to so many children. That is why Leyadriel will be so good at it, why she will make a most excellent queen, because she would make a most excellent mother.'

This thought had dug into his heart when it had scribbled itself across his mind and stayed there. Leyadriel would make a sublime ruler, as she would make a caring mother; which was something he direly wished to make her. 

They had not talked about it since that night in the forest, they had not mentioned their binding nor the possibility of their having children; but in his heart Legolas knew that the time would soon come when all would be right, when no sadness nor grief marred their decisions and they would bind. The traditional way, he had always thought, under the moon and the stars before being bathed by the sun and sky. Then they would have at least one child, an heir for them both. One heir for Legolas, carrying the strong Silvan blood of Thranduil's folk with Mirkwood's trails embedded on the elfling's heart. The same child would also have Leyadriel's strong Noldor blood, the blood of those who have dwelt under the mallorns and on top of thrones for longer then Mirkwood's kin can recall, the babe would have its mother's blood and his. 

Any offspring of theirs would be nearly perfect; the combination of Silvan and Noldor, of Mirkwood, Rivendell and Lorien all in one being, the love of the wood with the lust for the sea with the meticulous care of all who dwelt under either. Legolas and Leyadriel both possessed the most stunning of blue eyes, a trait their child would reflect. The pools could be crystalline one moment before turning to a raging midnight storm the next. And the babe would be a powerful warrior with a will like Leyadriel's and the talent of its father. Terribly fair would be the face of their elfling, no matter whether male or female it would be wonderfully chiseled, dignity and pride etched into every curve of the face while modesty and kindness radiated from their soul, their body would be tall and slim and strong.

Legolas had dreamed and thought so often of their possible children since that conversation had come up. The curse might very well pass to any with Leyadriel's blood and her children would therefore be carriers. 

Unless, he thought darkly, they took one risk, one possible solution. If they both chose to live mortal lives, if they completely surrendered all of their elven blood……… there were still no guarantees that their child would be spared.

There were other paths, other ways, some more insane then others but all coming to the same conclusion: that no one had any idea if the curse would pass or how to prevent it from happening if that chance were present.

He would need to make her his wife before he fathered her children though, something he was more then willing to do. Legolas well recalled his crowning, at the ripe age of 50, and the next frustrating century of his life. It was between the ages of 50 and 100 that elves normally married, they had a one year engagement in polite society or they could bind for a fast marriage and normally there was no elf above two hundred that was not without their mate. But Legolas had taken no interest of any maids, he had not married calmly and civilly like his brothers and sister had, he had completely refused to marry. Of course his father understood that marriage was not a decision he could make for his son, so Thranduil gradually accepted the odd son's very odd decision. Legolas was now nearly in his third millennia and it was even more queer for a three thousand year old elven bachelor to marry then it originally is to have a three thousand year old elven bachelor. The youngest son of Thranduil could not guess his father's reaction to the announcement that Legolas had taken a wife, a young one even by elvish standards and the blood of Aragorn no less (Thranduil had not taken well to Aragorn since the Ranger had dropped Sméagol in the King's dungeons but Legolas got on well with Aragorn despite his father's disapproval). Though his brother's he could guess, they would take a great interest in Leyadriel and would compliment him on a fine specimen of a wife, then they would rag him about children for none of Thranduil's sons had children and the King was becoming impossible to live with because of it. His daughter, Legolas' sister, however had a son with her husband and then moved from Mirkwood to Lorien so that her husbands' family could help her with the boy. She also loved Lorien dearly, but when her son was killed in the Helm's Deep battle, she had sailed with her husband and therefore would not be a witness to Legolas' nuptials. This he regretted, his mother had died shortly after his birth and he had never really known her, his sister had become a surrogate mother to him and he wished very much to hear her words to him because they would undoubtedly soothe his fevered heart from worries over possibly rough words from his father…………

*Flashback ended*

Pain shot through him, so violently that he felt like even the abyss of grey behind his eyelids, even that eternal emptiness was preferable to the unthinkable pain ripping through his ribcage and his heart. He could all but feel the blood running from the wound and pooling around him, he could all but taste the copper-whip of it fill his mouth, his breathing was heavier but thinner, faster yet slower and it was harder to draw a breath as the pain wracked his lithe form. Legolas convulsed, tears were streaming down his face but…… he was not crying. They were phantom tears. The wound was not real, but the pain was not some ghost of another injury.

His heart was being torn into shreds as if by a wild animal that had pried its way beyond his ribcage.

The pain was beyond blinding, he heard sobs in his head and he felt bitter betrayal, abandonment and grief in such wild waves that he was grateful for the state he was in, being unable to move or open his eyes. He was grateful to sink into a sleep that removed that vivid pain from him, allowing him to rest, slowing him to recuperate before the next assault of it began.

But as the unconsciousness took over his body, he was at least given the mercy of keeping the memory he had been dwelling on.

*Flashback from before continued*

He had pushed thoughts of his father away from his mind as he dressed for Leyadriel's coronation, an event he was impatient to be a part of. He could not wait to see his little Jewel become a Queen. The Prince quickly tied the silver threaded cord around his waist, the last piece of his silver and blue tunic. Silver being the color of the night, chosen by the princess herself. He had two front ends of his hair pulled back by intricate twists and braids, he even graced his brow with the gold leaf crown of Mirkwood royalty, the gold sticking out painfully but on the radiant Prince, even the clash looked fair as the sun just setting into the cold silver sky of winter. 

Legolas sat next to Arwen, in a throne facing the archway that Leyadriel would walk through. She would then walk up the pale velvet carpet laid out in the center of the courtyard. The event, as many in Elven custom, was to take place outdoors and Elbereth smiled upon them from the full moon shining down on them. The stars twinkled as if smiling at the event. There was no smile on Legolas' face, he was too anxious, too excited to smile, he simply stared fixedly at the archway which he could not see beyond because of the vines that wrapped so thickly around them.

Arwen put a hand over his arm, "One would think that you are awaiting more then just a princess to be crowned a Queen."

Legolas gave her a befuddled look and she smiled knowingly, reading her old friend's mind, "One would think that you are awaiting your bride, Greenleaf old friend."

Legolas let out a smile, a small one that barely did justice to his fair face, "A fine idea, Arwen."

Arwen laced her fingers through Legolas' and held them there comfortingly, calming him and soothing his nerves and then she commented, "Tonight would be the perfect night to bind to her, truly a night to remember."

"I thought the same," He breathed, "I just hope your daughter does mellonin." {My friend}

She stared into his eyes, there was still a love for him behind them, a love that was not potent enough for marriage but was intimate to stay the dearest of friends, he felt the same and it was a secretive way they stared for a moment. No one looking on would know that behind those eyes were years of love and lust and secrets and feuds. Years of the closest friendship of any living being present that night. It became painfully clear to Legolas that he was to loose this confidant he had kept close for so long, he would miss her so much, there would always be an empty space in his heart where Aragorn once ran, where Haldir once laughed, where Arwen once lay beside him in the peace only lovers know. He leaned over and pushed a small kiss against her lips, gentle and saddened and filled with a goodbye even his honeyed elven tongue could not give, it was his last farewell to her, his last promise to her.

They pulled apart just as the gasps of awe echoed from the crowd, not at the Evenstar and the Elven Prince but at the picture of radiance before them. Leyadriel's hair was unbound and brushed to a healthy shine; it fell around her in the gentlest waves and softest curls in the pitch blackness of a raven's feathers. Her pale skin glowed under the moonlight and the mortals backed away from her, for the light that shined from within was making her burn like a white flame in the night. The elves present, mostly from Ithilien and a few who had come at a full gallop from Imladris (her uncles Elladan and Elrohir were present for both their sister and their niece) saw in her all the fame of her blood, Galadriel, Arwen Undomiel, and even the greatest of all, Luthien. The Eldar bowed their heads in respect and she glided over the carpet, she was barefoot and the dress of the palest pink, a final gift from her father, flowed around her as if it were water. The dress was the only outfit present that was not in a base of silver. She was the only one wearing pink, and for a reason, so that she would stand out. 

Without a doubt, this was the fairest creature present, all who were witness agreed. 

Leyadriel had seen the kiss, but had thought it nothing, besides she was too nervous to dwell on any thought except putting one foot in front of the other and remembering to breath.

Finally the princess kneeled before her mother almost reverently, there was fear in her voice but also anticipation as she spoke, "I have come to claim what is mine, what was given to me when I was too young to truly appreciate it. Now I have come of age enough to rule and my people have need of a ruler. Arwen Evenstar, daughter of Elrond of Imladris and mother of mine, you have ruled in my stead but now I am here to take my crown, my throne and my rightful place."

Arwen smiled warmly at her daughter and drew a hand to her side, summoning a servant forward who knelt and opened a boxed delicately etched with fine elvish designs. From this box Arwen lifted a crown of sparkling silver from its resting place. It was delicately braided silver looking from the front like a simple circlet but from the back one would see gold woven in with the silver in the intricate lacings of a Wood soon to be lost for eternity. The gold could be seen as flowers, with wide petals whose slender tips tickled the silver which seemed to be a vine winding from the princess' brow to the nape of her neck. She lovingly placed the crown upon her daughter's head and kissed the girl's hairline, "This is the crown of Galadriel, the Lady of Light, ruler of the Elvish realm of Lothlorien. The strength of the legendary Celeborn is wrought into this silver, the power of his wife Galadriel into the gold; this is the crown of the Lord and Lady of the Fair Folk. Let any speak who disapproves of this crown resting on this brow."

A dead silence fell and with this as her cue, Leyadriel stood and looked out. The crown rested powerfully on her and she had the natural grace to hold the regal posture that a crown demands, she kneeled again but this time with her back to her mother.

Arwen lifted another object from the box; an elaborate necklace woven of mithril strands braided with silver, the thin chain bloomed into a jeweled mallorn blossom with deep green and silver outlined leaves on either side. The necklace fell onto Leyadriel's breastbone and seemed to make her glow even more, the flower seeming real and soft. 

"This is the Jewel of the Joining of the Elvish Realm of Imladris and Lothlorien. The Jewel is known as the Mallorn Bloom; it was a wedding present to Celebrain daughter of Celeborn when she wed Elrond, Lord of Imladris. It was the symbol of the Lady of that Realm; it is passed to Celebrant's granddaughter as an emblem of her regal heritage as the next Lady of Imladris, any who doubt this speak now."

The silence was thick and Arwen smiled proudly and looked back to Legolas who stepped forward, "This is Legolas the Son of King Thranduil of the last Elvish Realm, Mirkwood. All three elvish realms must accept their Queen; Lothlorien and Imladris are spoken for in the presence of both blood and jewels, but Mirkwood is absent. Prince Legolas, show either your kingdom's support or disapproval of the Crowning of Princess Leyadriel as the Queen of the Elves."

Legolas smiled now, he and Arwen had thought for hours and hours about how to do this, about what Mirkwood would give to Leyadriel that could stand in the presence of the other gifts and not be a mockery of true acceptance of her coronation. So they had thought of a very simple gift, the most simple yet beautiful one they could have chosen.

"Mirkwood has no Jewel above the one that stands before us, and no trinkets above the ones she already wears. My kingdom, and I as its prince, are humble servants before Lady Leyadriel. We hope that she accepts our gift," He paused and stared into Leyadriel's eyes with butterflies fluttering in his stomach, Legolas brought from his pocket a velvet bag from which he produced a ring. It was golden shaped like leaves winding around the band with the center of it being an emerald leaf. A Greenleaf, just like he was. Like he hoped she would be, "This ring was given to my mother by my father, it is the symbol of the Greenleaf House, and it bears Mirkwood's Royal seal and colors as well as the love of centuries of company in the Greenleaf Line. Mirkwood presents our Queen with our Prince; we only hope it is found acceptable."

Legolas went on one knee, and bowed his head as was proper. Many of the elves gasped, taken aback that the Mirkwood Prince, a well known bachelor at the ripe old age of two thousand nine hundred and thirty three, would propose to anyone but he was prepared to accept their talk and their glances, their shock. What was happening was almost unheard of, but so was proposing marriage at a coronation. Legolas noted that his little plotting with Arwen was so far turning out for the better, except for the fact that Leyadriel had not yet responded.

Leyadriel stood and it was a sight to behold, the most beautiful maid that any had ever seen, lifted Legolas' bowed head with two fingers under his chin so that his anxious blue eyes met her's, "I accept your gift, and you, Prince Legolas. I only pray that I am worthy of such an offer."

He stood up from his kneel and took the hand from his chin, kissing it before sliding the ring upon her finger. She stared at it, tears behind her eyes but she held them far better then her mother did for Arwen was crying nearly uncontrollably. Legolas could not stand it, he could not recall when he had last kissed her lips but it was far too long ago and he realized how much he had missed her for the past few days. He brought her lips to his and she melted against him, her legs nearly giving out with pure joy and surprise. He wrapped his arms around her and broke the kiss before either of them got too carried away, elves were comfortable with public displays of affection but that humans were not nearly as much so. 

Leyadriel laced her fingers through Legolas', much like her mother had, she pressed a feather light kiss to his lips, just like the one he had given Arwen and Legolas knew that this was his chastisement for his earlier actions. He was happy that this would not propel into a fight with his betrothed. Leyadriel faced her people, years seemed to have been put on her shoulders with the weight of the crown on her brow for now she looked much older, far fairer and wiser then she had been upon walking down the path to receive the burden. Legolas grew more in love with her as she addressed her people for the first time, "As my mother before me, and her mother's mother before her, I shall lead and protect our people for as much or as little time as we walk this Middle Earth, I shall be as my predecessors, all at once Your Queen, Your Protector, and Your Mother. Pass your final days in peace, hini-nin." {My children}

A cheer broke out from the humans and this made the Eldar smile for they knew no noise was needed, all that was needed was a bow to their Queen and future King as they walked down the carpet hand in hand. They glowed like ethereal beings, truly deserving of the titles Lord and Lady of Light.

*Flashback ended*

Another brutal wave of pain seized him; his heart was pumping so hard and so fast that he felt like it would burst. He fell into a deep unconscious slumber without even the comfort of holding the memory of his love close to his heart. For the longest space of time, his entire form was still, his heart beating but softly, his breathing slow and shallow but never ceasing. The total oblivion behind his eyes, the blanket of black that he couldn't alter or control, he eventually came to realize that it would be his companion for a very long time. His head ached like never before, it was as if it was split down the center. It throbbed, it was a steadily paced pain starting behind his eyes and ending just below his temples, he somehow knew that the dark would help soothe the pain better then the light would and was almost glad of the abyss that trapped him. He wanted to escape but his soul once more was sobbing, grieving and so depressed that it would not lift a finger in attempt to flee the dark prison.

He could not comprehend why his own body would not listen to his commands, he felt like a babe again, like a small child that could do nothing except allow everything to happen to it and hope someone else would protect him for he was incapable of defending himself.

The constant pounding against his skull tormented him so greatly, he tried to take his mind off of it by thinking once more of the last time he had seen his beloved, trying to remember what could have happened to do this to him and all the while the question lingered in the back of his mind, What had happened to his Leyadriel? Where was she? How was she? Would he ever see her again?

*Flashback, continued from the other one yet again*

Humans and elves alike were approaching them, congratulating them and complimenting Leyadriel, bowing before her and some elves commented on how delightfully shocked they had been when Legolas had proposed, to this Leyadriel always responded, "I can assure you that you were not the only one shocked," and at this Legolas would always playfully glare at her for the use of 'shock' instead of something like 'surprised' or 'stunned' and she would playfully respond to him, "*Pleasantly* shocked, darling."

At one point they snuck off, Leyadriel wanted to be alone with him so they strolled to their garden, arm in arm gazing at the flowers and the moon and stars. When they came before their rose bush and its new neighbor, Leyadriel leaned down and touched the roses as though they were a baby's face and inhaled their sweet scent and sat on the bench, a tear falling over her cheek, "I wish I could have been there, that is all. I wish I could have been with him as he passed."

Legolas sat beside her and wiped the tear away with his thumb, "Im sinta, meleth. But don't think of such sad thoughts right now, this is supposed to be a happy night….. a memorable night." {I know love.}

Leyadriel smiled suggestively, "What exactly does that mean, my Prince?"

"That I wish to bind to you tonight, I wish to make you my wife tonight." He told her simply, holding her hand bearing their engagement ring in both of his.

Leyadriel's smile fell, "Tonight?"

"What is wrong with tonight? We do not have to hide anymore, Leyadriel, we do not have to wonder who approves and who does not. They have all consented, all agreed and I ache for you, beloved, I ache to make you mine, ache to be only yours and have you be only mine." He kissed her hand as he said this, hoping to emphasize his point but by the look on her face he was pleading in vain and he couldn't understand why she would accept his proposal but refuse to go through with that commitment.

He pouted pathetically at her and she cupped his cheek with her hand, "Don't give me that look, Legolas. I, too, ache to be yours, I ache to be with you, be your wife and your Queen. I cannot wait for you to be my King and to finally choose my elven lifestyle, to choose immortality….."

"But?" He prompted.

She took her hand out of his and stared lovingly into the jewel that had long ago been shaped into a leaf, "I shall be a Greenleaf, a member of that house and yet all but one of its members are strangers to me. I simply wish to meet the family that I am to be a part of."

"They will love you." He promised her.

"All of them? Which 'they' are you referring to?" She questioned with a sad teasing in her tone.

"My brothers will adore you, both of them will, and when you meet my sister she will greet you with open arms….."

"Adarlle?" {Your father?}

"Never mind my father, you are marrying me not him."

"I would like my father in law to accept me; he will be the only adar I have left." {father}

Legolas pulled Leyadriel into his arms, "I wish I could promise you his love, but I fear even I do not possess that. He will accept you, he will have no choice. My love for you is what is important, our love for each other, that is what matters, not Thranduil's opinion."

She nuzzled his neck for a moment before pulling back and kissing him, she adored the feeling of his lips upon her's and was beyond thrilled that they would be her's alone for the rest of time. That her's would be solely his; that his kiss and his touch and his taste would be just her's forever. Maybe, just maybe, she would bind to him tonight. He had a good point, Thranduil had to accept her because she was binding to his son, because his youngest child was in love with her and he would kill them both by separating them. Thranduil had already lost his wife, he would never knowingly kill one of his own children, the last remnants of his dead wife that he had.

He put his hand on the back of her neck, he felt her crown there and it was an alien feeling to him. He would have to get used to feeling a crown upon her head; he wrapped his hands around her waist and pulled her closer to him. This was the first time he had seen her in her indescribably magnificent dress and the only thing he could think about was ripping the masterpiece off of her. Leyadriel traced his circlet with her fingers before pressing her digits to his sensitively tipped ears, he moaned delightedly into her mouth as she massaged the tips. He wreaked sweet revenge upon her though, he moved his kisses from her lips to her throat, to her jaw-line and took one of her ear tips in his mouth, suckling on it, rolling his tongue over its edge, and nipping gently. Leyadriel nearly screamed out in complete pleasure, this was a ministration that he had never before performed on her and she was so immensely enjoying it that she neglected to hear twin footsteps approach.

"And to think that a moment ago I was suspicious of this pairing!" Elladan scoffed loudly, making Legolas and Leyadriel pull away from each other with mutters and quiet curses at the interruption.

"This is becoming a horrible habit of yours Legolas, to be caught by us in rather uncomfortable positions with the women that we love." Elrohir remarked.

Legolas and Leyadriel stood and he put an arm around her waist, "Actually I've always been caught in rather comfortable positions by rather annoying intruders."

Elladan and Elrohir laughed quietly, embracing their old friend as they scolded him, "At least wait until you know that no innocent children could stumble upon you. If I was young I would've mortified by that!"

Leyadriel smiled as she lovingly hugged the uncles that she never saw much of, each other them kissing her brow before lightly touching the jewel at her throat, fondly recalling their mother and her brief time wearing it.

"We simply came to see our lovely niece and bid her farewell, we must return to Imladris directly at dawn tomorrow," A mischievous grin lit Elladan's features, "and we sincerely doubt that she will be available."

Elrohir pulled away from his niece, who had thrown herself into another embrace with each uncle and told her, "Your sister was looking for you earlier; she may have given up by now."

"Which sister?" Leyadriel asked.

"Elaren." The response came as the brothers walked away, to the palace to retire to their chambers.

Leyadriel's heart skipped a beat, "Why would Elaren want to talk to me?"

"She wanted to wish you both the most joyous of futures." The voice came from behind them and they both spun around, agitated that they had been snuck up on twice this night, "I think that your memorials will be truly beautiful."

"Memorials?" Legolas asked viciously, Elaren would not ruin Leyadriel's night for her.

"Love that is doomed to fail is often commemorated by paintings or sculptures. Sometimes song or poetry-"

"Leave us Elaren." Legolas cut in, his tone poisonous.

"As you wish my Lord. I hope you both have a good night." She smiled maliciously as she walked away from them.

Leyadriel's face was stony as she watched Elaren's form shrink in the distance and she gripped Legolas' arm, "Let's go to bed, she has ruined the air out here simply by breathing it."

He softened his face and his tone, "Do not let her get to you, Leyadriel, at least ignore her just for tonight."

He knelt and cut her a white rose from their bush and handed it to her, neither were cut by the thorns, their fingers instinctively knew where to fall so as not to hit the peaks. His words hit her and she listened to them, calming herself and returning to the happy state she was in moments before and held Legolas' hand, "I still want to go to bed, Legolas."

He smiled wolfishly, "And I will never keep anything from you that you truly want."

They walked up to their room arm in arm, Elaren's words seeping into their minds unbidden. What had she meant by 'love doomed to fail'? Was it another empty threat? Neither of them could be sure. 

"Are you sure you want to dismiss the thought of us binding tonight?" Legolas asked as soon as the door was closed and his lips had heatedly found the hollow of her throat.

"Uma." {Yes.} She moaned.

"Tereva." {Fine.} He simply stopped kissing her and walked away from her and towards their bed, by the time he had come within a foot of the bed's edge Leyadriel had come up behind him, her arms snaking around his waist and unfastening his tunic, pulling it to the floor, "I thought you had dismissed the thoughts." He whispered throatily.

"I dismissed the act, I want to practice and you told me you would never withhold anything I truly wanted."

He turned to face her and pulled her against him, playfully asking, "Is that all you want from me, my Queen? My body? Well I am but your humble servant, have anything that you desire."

"I will." She pushed him onto the bed and climbed on top of him, "But surely you know that I want more then just your body."

He put his hands on her waist and drew her closer, "What do you want then, Leyadriel? Tell me."

Her eyes unfocused for a moment and then fogged over in a different kind of longing, "I want to feel you in me, I want to feel my body absorb you and then I want to feel my body slowly grow around it. I want to have your child, Legolas, I have been thinking greatly about it recently."

The mood grew more serious but he did not lament the change, Legolas stroked her cheek, "Then I have not been the only one."

"I am so afraid to be your wife, Legolas, I want it so badly but I dread its coming." She whispered, "I want you to be the father of my children but I am so afraid to curse them. I want to be your wife, I want to be yours, but I am afraid to burden you with my existence."

"You are no burden, dearest," He sat up so that her legs were wrapped around them and their chests were pressed together, "The only burden is life without you, I can live with or without whatever you can or cannot give me as long as I have you."

"I don't understand that." She admitted.

He kissed the tip of her nose, "That is because you have yet to bind to me and choose your immortal life, when you are an elf, a full elf, you will find out the possibility of someone's mere presence can be worth one's complete and utter dedication, how it can affect one's entire existence."

She nodded and he kissed her mouth again and pulled her dress over her head, underneath was a thin slip and he kicked off his boots, this was how they fell asleep, with their bodies intertwined so delicately, their faces so peaceful and their crowns the shining reminder that royalty lived within this room.

*End Flashback*

That was all he remembered, that was the end, after that he had become conscious in this dark that he was engulfed in. 

"Legolas." He heard his name being called from somewhere outside of this half conscious void he was in, he remembered this voice very well, this was the first voice he could recall.

*Legolas, come here son, do you see all those trees? All that forest? That's ours, Legolas, that's ours.*

'Adar.' He thought, he wanted to speak, to talk to his father.

"Legolas! Hear me, come to the light Legolas, come back to us. Legolas! Please, son, don't die, don't fade." The King pleaded with his son's body.

Thranduil had been receiving letters for nearly a year from his son about how the sea longing was too much to bear, about how he lamented living because he loved one who may not be accepted in Valinor and how he was torn by two longings. Two desires that he could not choose from, his heart or his sanity. Five months ago Thranduil had, upon his youngest son's request, met him at the dock of a grey ship that was to sail with Legolas' two brothers. There he met Elaren, the beautiful maid that had taken his son's heart, the half-elven daughter of Arwen and Aragorn who may not be accepted for her human blood. In the letter asking his family to come, Legolas had expressed a hope that the more royal elves upon the ship the less likely Valinor would refuse it, the more likely he would be able to keep his beloved near him.

But when he had reached the docks with Legolas' brothers Elaren was there crying over Legolas' unconscious form claiming that he had been raped by her sister and was fading.

Thranduil's rage at Leyadriel, the sister Elaren blamed, was great as he daily tried to reach his son's mind and pull him away from the precipice he stood before. Every day and night he and his other son's took turns calling to him, trying to bring him back to consciousness. Each time they failed.

"Legolas," Thranduil tried again, the whole room swayed as the ship rocked back and forth, its course set for Valinor, battling the raging seas, "Legolas, please come back. Your love mourns every day that you are absent from the waking world. Please return to her, she wants to see you so badly."

These words Legolas heard and he fought and fought against the agony in his soul, he battled when he heard his father tell him that his beloved was there and wanting to see him.

The prince's lips trembled for the first time in five months, his closed eyelids fluttered and opened; fingers that had remained in the same position for nearly half a year finally twitched, "Le…"

His throat was so dry he could not speak; Thranduil cried out happily and cupped the back of his head, bringing his son forward and giving water to drink. After his throat was no longer parched Legolas tried to speak, "Melethnin." {My love.}

His father nodded and smiled, putting a finger against Legolas' lips so that he couldn't speak, "Don't speak, your strength must return to you. I will bring her here; you must wish to see her greatly."

Legolas gave a shallow nod, he tried to move but his whole body felt empty and hollow, as though there was no energy left in him to even blink. Confusion began to flood him; he managed to grip his father's robes before the king left, "Where are we? Why are you here?"

Already he felt some strength seeping slowly back into his body, every second that he was awake he felt like he was gaining more rest then his long slumber-like state had given him.

"You don't remember?" Thranduil cocked an eyebrow then the color drained from his face, "Aye Elbereth! What can you remember? How much memory have you lost?"

"I remember that Miramin and I went to bed in Gondor after the crowning. Then I woke up here." He admitted hissing in stiffness as he sat up in bed, his whole body was unused to movement of any sort, even breathing in the new position was aching his lungs.

Thranduil asked, "Do you know why you were fading?"

"I was fading?" Legolas wore a look of sheer puzzlement.

Thranduil sat next to his son and took one of his hands in his, "Legolas, son, you were fading from this world. The last thing you remember happened nearly five months ago. After you and your betrothed went to bed, her sister came into the room with some ruffian who attacked your beloved and bound her as her sister raped you. You nearly died from it, but you have strength in you and have survived."

The shock of this news coursed through the young prince, the mere knowledge of this caused him to fall back into his previous state of hanging between life and death; between conscious waking and unconscious sleep.

*He felt skin move against his but the feel of this skin was alien*

What had happened? 

*Lips brushed over his skin but he could not recall their taste, this was not Leyadriel.*

Was what his father said true?

*He tried to grab the woman and push her off of him but he was bound, he could not free his hands and legs from their binds, no matter how hard he struggled.*

Why couldn't he remember? Where was Leyadriel? Was she alright?

*He tried to quell his body's responses to the stranger's ministrations but he could not help it. He was disgusted with her and with what she was doing, suddenly he heard crying. He needed to go to her, he felt like he needed to, that she was upset and she was not in the room, she was somewhere else. The crying was distant, she was not there to help him and he was unable to help her. The whore with him impaled herself with him and he could only think about how much he loved Leyadriel, about how much he hated this woman. He could feel himself slipping away, there was a cloth over his eyes and he was struggling to see through it. His body was shutting down, his heart was slowing, his soul was bleeding, but he could barely make out one thing through the shadows……*

Who had done this to him? To Leyadriel? Who did he have to kill?

*Blonde hair flickered in the dim candlelight of the room and a low voice purred, "I bind myself to thee, Legolas Thranduilion." {Son of Thranduil}*

He suddenly knew, but even as his blood boiled and his eyes shot open and his fists clenched, much of his strength returned to him with the addition of this fury, he knew that this traitor was not to be killed by him. She deserved to be killed by the one person she hurt the most; it was Leyadriel who deserved to be the one to end her younger sister's life.

When the red behind his eyes faded enough to see around the room he found that Thranduil was gone and that his eldest brother was there, "Heraith?"

"Legolas!" His brother looked much like Legolas but had longer hair and a sharper brow; the Crown Prince of Mirkwood let out a joyful cry, "Diolla Elbereth! When you fell back asleep yesterday father thought for sure that you would wake from it again! Your fiancé has been hysterical." {Thank Elbereth}

Legolas did not understand why his brother was here, "Why are you here, Heraith? Why is father here? Where is Pheduil here as well?"

Heraith nodded and signaled for Legolas to calm down, "Yes our brother is here and we are here because you sent for us, do you not remember?"

"I never sent for you, where are we?" 

"Of course you did," Heraith now looked confused, "And we are on your ship, do you not recall? You've been writing about it to us for nearly a year."

His mind was reeling, "I do not have a ship and where are we going? Why are we even on a ship? Why am I here!"

"Legolas calm yourself! You will relapse and it will be my head if you do! We are going to Valinor as you planned. You have been writing home for a year about your lover and how you feared that you would not be able to keep her when going to Valinor so you asked us to sail there with both of you so that she would have a greater chance of being admitted."

"Why would Leyadriel not be accepted in Valinor when more then half of her family reside there waiting for her?! And I NEVER wrote any such thing to you! Where is she? Where is Leyadriel?"

"Leyadriel!" Heraith growled, "Why would we let that twisted wench anywhere near you?"

"Watch your tongue brother!" 

"And why should I? I should speak the truth of a conniving rapist, she nearly murdered you Legolas and Elaren was lucky to escape without being killed!"

"Elaren should have been killed long ago! It was Elaren who caused me to be put in this state! Leyadriel is the Queen of the Elves and the love of my life! She was to be my wife and my Queen and the mother to my children now guard your tongue!"

Heraith looked taken aback, "Mani??" {what}

Legolas took a calming breath, "You said my love was here, where is my Leyadriel? Where is my sparkling jewel?"

Heraith would not answer, he would open his mouth to speak but no words would come out; his brother was never at a loss for words and this frightened Legolas.

"Heraith! Where is she? Where is Leyadriel?"

His brother suddenly composed himself; he saw the truth shining in his youngest brother's eyes and bowed his head, "Tarien! Tula sinome." {Princess, come here.}

As footsteps approached Heraith gripped Legolas' shoulder, "Im hiraetha, Legolas." {I'm sorry.}

His heart sank but this time, he knew why. A deep sadness was in his brother's voice, a deep regret. 

Memories of Leyadriel at play when she was a child, when she was an adolescent, and then still playfully running around with him as a grown woman came to plague him again.

* Playground school bell rings again*

 Thunder sounded outside, rain began to beat against the window pane and lightening splashed, illuminating the room.

* rain clouds come to play again*

Soft footsteps echoed by the door. 

"Legolas!" The voice was surprised that he was awake, that he was sitting up in bed. 

A bed that he leapt out of when he heard the voice, "Elaren!" He snarled.

He gripped her shoulders and violently shook her, "Where is Leyadriel? WHERE IS SHE?"

Elaren cocked her head to one side and asked, "Has no one told you?"

He just stared at her, his heart stopped beating, "She's no longer breathing Legolas."

He fell to the floor, and she kneeled and joined him, "She no longer lives, meleth. But why do you ask? Are you not happy to see your wife?"

"How can I if she's….." Legolas could not bring himself to say 'dead'; maybe it was denial but he felt like he would have known if Leyadriel was dead, he felt like a part of him would have died and he never would have risen from his death-like sleep.

"Legolas? She is right beside you." Elaren smiled happily, she grabbed his hand and he pulled it from her grasp. She looked at the empty air her hand held as though she could not comprehend and she couldn't. Elaren had always seen elf bindings as magical; they had always been explained to her as such. 

When two bodies were bound together and the two who were bound made a pledge of binding, they were married and would have an irreversible love for each other for the rest of time.

Their bodies had bound, a pledge was made. Legolas should care nothing for Leyadriel, he should be fawning over Elaren but he was not, he looked like he was a hollow shell.

Legolas' voice was devoid of any warmth when he replied, "You are not my wife Elaren, you never shall be, do you not understand that I nearly died from your meddling? Now tell me what has happened to Leyadriel! Tell me what you have done you foolish girl!"

He gripped her so hard that she yelped in pain, she tried to bat his arms away and he saw something familiar flicker on her hand, Leyadriel's engagement ring, his family ring. Legolas seized her wrist and pulled the ring off of her yelling, "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?"

Elaren looked at him as if he had grown another head and cried, "What is this? We were bound! You are supposed to by mine!"

"Do NOT think that pretty words from one mouth binds two hearts Elaren. A binding must be mutual, it must be consented to, it cannot be forced on someone. We are not bound; you are not my wife! TELL ME WHAT HAS HAPPENED!!"

Elaren screamed and raging tears streamed down her face which was screwed up in fury, "BY NOW SHE HAS BEEN DEAD FOR MONTHS! ROTTING IN SOME SHALLOW GRAVE!"

Legolas slapped her so hard that her head snapped to one side and she fell to the ground, "If Leyadriel were dead, so would I be. She lives. Now tell me what was done Elaren, I have no pity for you, I will torment you until you tell me do not doubt that."

Elaren spat blood at his feet and hissed, "I left her in the care of an old friend of yours."

"Ya?" {Who?}

"Lord Pengwaith." Her smile was malicious, "Even if you returned, do you really think you would find her in any fit state to live with for eternity?"

"She will be found, she will be alive or I shall rest with her. No matter what she looks like, how broken she has become, I love her and an eternity with her is what I will have in life or in death."

Pengwaith, the name was sour on his tongue so he did not even speak it but his heart was grasped by the fear that the Leyadriel he hoped was still alive would be altered both physically and mentally by her former lover's abuse.

He took Elaren by the nape of her neck and tossed her forcefully out of the room and yelled for supper to be brought to him before slamming the door shut and locking it, he fell crumpled in defeat on the floor, staring out the window to the full moon that sparkled beyond the thunderclouds, "My jewel, my beautiful gem, I shall return to you, I shall come to you and nothing shall keep us from each other again, I will kill it whether it be my own father or your wench of sister. Please, my jewel, my raven, my rose, wait for me, be there. Please hold on to your life, hold the hope that we may yet live and love together."

His prayer was heartfelt and it stretched across a long ocean and a longer land and reached the soul of the weeping maiden, and for a reason that she could not comprehend, some hope was put back into her heart and she ceased weeping and looked out into the night, "Melethnin, are you out there? Do you stare at the moon and feel the rain upon your skin? Are you happy now, dearest? Is that why my heart feel lighter?"

Then she glanced down at a belly that was swollen a little, "It can't be, he is not mine any longer, he has long since given his soul to another, why would it cry out to me?"

*Hello I'm your mind giving you someone to talk to…………hello*

A/N- This is only the first verse, to be continued so that you can figure out what the hell is going on. *Evil smile*  (Each verse gets its own chapter) (that's how inspired I was by the song)

What did you think? Any ideas on what's going on? Does it make a little sense? (It should only make a little sense until after the next couple of chapters)


	41. Hello I'm the Lie Living For You So You ...

A/N- Here's the second verse's chapter! Like I said I was extremely inspired by "hello" by evanescence. Someone tell them that they're EXCELLENT! This chappy might also be confusing but I have to thank WINTER'S ROAR for once again being a very perceptive reader and (also the second one to finish the chapter) and it just brightens my day a little when someone like you notices little things that I hid in the chappy and tell me, it makes me smile. Just had to say that. Again, another chapter that'll probably be confusing, Warning: you may want to kill Le by the end of this!  
  
Also many many songs by Evanescence, god I owe them my immortal soul...if anyone out there knows them tell them that their god!  
  
Props to the genius who invented coffee ice cream, it's been my brain food (with chocolate syrup and whipped cream! Fattening but o so good!) Also popcorn! And crackers and cheese...not healthy but very high in Creativity.  
  
Also, the poem in this chapter is NOT mine (for once). God with all the songs and poems the chapter is barely mine!  
  
Chapter 41- Hello I'm the Lie Living For You So You Can Hide  
  
*Playground school bell rings again  
  
rain clouds come to play again  
  
has no one told you she's not breathing?  
  
hello I'm your mind giving you someone to talk to  
  
hello  
  
if I smile and don't believe  
  
soon I know I'll wake from this dream  
  
don't try to fix me I'm not broken  
  
hello I'm the lie living for you so you can hide  
  
don't cry  
  
suddenly I know I'm not sleeping  
  
hello I'm still here  
  
all that's left of yesterday*  
  
"Hello" - Evanescence  
  
*** FIVE MONTHS EARLIER***  
  
Leyadriel laid her head on Legolas' shoulder, her elven prince was dreaming and she was not, she would not this night she refused to sleep. Out of the window the moon still smiled at her and the stars sparkled and she wished to see them better. She wished to be alone for a little while. With a quick kiss to Legolas' cheek she untangled herself from his arms and put a robe over her barely clad figure; then she made her way down the corridors of the palace and outside. She didn't travel to the gardens; she simply walked the grounds and felt the grass beneath her feet.  
  
With a contented sigh she sat under a tree and smiled at the sky, tonight was nearly flawless. She would never forget it for as long as she lived.  
  
*I wish you were here, ada, I wish you were here.* She thought over and over.  
  
The stars above her were shining like jewels and she could not shed a tear, even in memory of her dead father, because this night was filled with so much joy. She traced the crown on her brow, it felt so right there, so light and elegant yet as in place; it was as if it belonged right where it was.  
  
*No one shall take this from me, never.* She promised herself that this was one thing that no one would take from her, that this was a position, and a right, that she would keep.  
  
Leaves rustled behind her and she gasped and stood, "Ya naa ta?" (Who is it?)  
  
There was no answer but the rustling grew louder and a figure stepped into the shadows, she could not see his face, "Ya naa lle?!" {Who are you?!)  
  
The figure put their hands up as though in surrender, "I still do not know elvish, my Princess."  
  
*I know that voice, I have heard it before, but where?*  
  
"Who are you?" She clutched her robe tightly around her chest.  
  
The figure went down upon one knee, "I am a man who disappeared from your life when he was a foolish boy who did not understand the wonderful jewel that he possessed... until he came back to apologize to her and found her engaged to another. I am what became of the fool who didn't realize what a gift your love was; I was the fool who hurt you because I was insecure about myself. I am a man who has only come to beg your forgiveness, please Leyadriel, my dearest, I have not forgotten you for a moment, please forgive me my past sins."  
  
Leyadriel's breath caught in her chest and she could not breath, her eyes widened in shock and she tried to slow her racing heart, "Pe-Pengwaith?"  
  
"Yes, my Princess, tis I." His head was bowed, his tone was sorrowful.  
  
"Get away from me." Her words were icy cold, laced with fear and loathing.  
  
He said nothing he just stayed on his knees his hands laced together, his head bowed, silently asking for forgiveness. Leyadriel backed away as though just being within reach of him would burn her, "Guards!" She screamed, "Guards! Come quickly!"  
  
Pengwaith did not fight her, he did not even move in protest as the guards came running and roughly handled him, forcing him into tight binds that cut into his wrists. Pengwaith was never ordered about, at least not the Pengwaith that Leyadriel remembered. This Pengwaith was allowing the guards to manhandle him as though he was a common thief without so much as a glare to them.  
  
"What do you wish for us to do, princess?" One asked Leyadriel, for she was not their Queen, only Queen to the elves, "Do you wish for us to wake Prince Legolas?"  
  
"No, let him sleep." Leyadriel studied Pengwaith carefully for a moment, "Why do you not struggle?"  
  
"For all the pain I have caused you I deserve nothing less. I am prepared to face my punishment like a man instead of running from it like a coward."  
  
"Put him in the dungeons, lock the door and guard it well. When the morning comes I shall see that his fate be decided."  
  
The guards nodded and led a very submissive Pengwaith away, Leyadriel watched until he was out of sight then she fell to the ground, sweating and shaking. Vivid memories of his face contorted in an odd pleasure as she bled, memories of his violent touch against her body, a touch that she had once craved and desired she was now thoroughly disgusted by.  
  
When her limbs ceased to shake so greatly, she stood and began hobbling to the palace. It had been nearly two hours since she had sent Pengwaith into the dungeon, that is how long it took for her to compose herself after being in his presents for a few minutes. How she hated him, but she did not wish to make a rash decision as a queen, so she held off judgment on him until after she could talk to Legolas, who (she rationed) would probably call for nothing less then the death penalty.  
  
As she climbed the stairs to her chambers, needing to be grounded by her lover in a very physical way, a guard approached her.  
  
"My Princess," He bowed and she motioned for him to continue, "The prisoner you sent to us is creating a disturbance. We wish to know what to do."  
  
*I knew it! Pengwaith cannot live and not cause ciaos!* "What is he doing? Screaming? Raving? Breaking things? Threatening? Has he hurt anyone? Hurt himself?" But she knew she was not lucky enough for the last thought to be true.  
  
"No, no, Your Majesty. He is singing. Quite pleasant except that he has refused to stop."  
  
"Obnoxious?"  
  
"Not really but since the warrant for his arrest has been so outstanding, we wanted to know if his disobedience shall be tolerated."  
  
"What sort of song?"  
  
"It's a lament for love, quite a nice song actually."  
  
Leyadriel nearly growled, "He is not to be trusted, not in the least."  
  
"Understood Your Majesty. I also was told to bring his personal effects to you."  
  
Leyadriel nodded, this was something her father had begun for the ruler to inspect the personal effects of a prisoner so that they might understand what sort of person they were. She extended her hands but upon seeing the tunic that was to be handed to her quickly withdrew them as if the clothe would poison her if she touched it. With the eyes of someone who has seen a ghost she hissed, "Burn it."  
  
"Yes, Majesty." He nodded and trotted off to burn the crimson tunic lined with gold, the tunic that Leyadriel had given to Pengwaith that he had never before worn because he had said it a displeasing color. He had hated it and yet he wore it this night, begging for her forgiveness, and allowing himself to be imprisoned because he felt that he deserved it. Where was the monster that she recalled? Why did this human suddenly have a heart?  
  
She climbed the rest of the stairs and walked down the corridor leading to the chambers she shared with Legolas in a fog of confusion; she opened the door and walked in calling out, "Meleth? Legolas? You will not believe who found me last night."  
  
He did not respond which was odd, she walked around the room trying to find him. The bathroom was empty, the parlor was empty and she entered the bedroom to see if he was still asleep. Normally the prince would have risen at her call, but he was not even in their room.  
  
"Legolas?" The name was whispered as she saw an envelope on top of rumpled covers with her name on the cover, "Where would you be at this ungodly hour of the night?"  
  
She opened the envelope and read it, upon seeing the words in Legolas' hand she did not believe them, she read them over and over and every time a knot in her chest grew tighter and bigger and she could not breath, she could not think, her vision was blurred by tears and her heart ached with every beat. Clutching her chest she tried to scream but it came out as a squeak, "Tirisila!"  
  
Her servant could not hear her so she called the name out over and over until she was screaming it at the top of her lungs, "TIRISILA! TIRISILA! TULA SINOME! TULA! TULA!" {Come here! Come! Come!)  
  
The elderly woman raced in and came over to Leyadriel, "What is it, my lady? What's wrong?"  
  
"Read this to me! Read it to me!" Leyadriel prayed that she was simply reading the wrong words, that it did not mean what she thought it did.  
  
Tirisila cleared her throat and read:  
  
Some say the world will end in fire,  
  
Others say in ice,  
  
From what I've tasted of desire,  
  
I hold with those who favor fire,  
  
But if it had to perish twice,  
  
I think I know enough of hate,  
  
To say that for destruction ice,  
  
Is also great and would suffice.  
  
(Fire and Ice by Robert Frost)  
  
My Queen, My Leyadriel,  
  
Always was the fire of our love great, it would shine and light the world around us but, I have just realized, destined to burn us both by not burning at all. Tonight I saw this. Tonight, when you rejected me, I saw that our world of fantasy and foolish love was doomed. I would rather that it burn now then freeze over later. Please accept this from me, Leyadriel, that I am going to Valinor with one whose name I shall not reveal. I would rather go there and have my love with her crash and burn violently then stay here with you and know that our love will only grow cold. We are too different, please understand, that you cannot even comprehend my love for you! You cannot understand what I give you and this I cannot live with. You are too young, far too young to be a lover much less a wife, perhaps when your eyes burn with years instead of passion then we shall find each other. But I leave now and ask only one thing of you: let me go. I wish to be free, please let me have this for if you were the one leaving then I would let you spread your wings and soar.  
  
Let me go, Leyadriel, I do not wish to be imprisoned with you, let me fly.  
  
Legolas  
  
As the last syllable fell from Tirisila's lips the old crone gasped, "So that's why..."  
  
"Why what?" Leyadriel snapped to attention, "Why what!"  
  
The hag licked her lips, "I saw Master Legolas leave on horseback with a young woman about an hour ago. They rode together, but I swear Mistress I thought she was you!"  
  
Leyadriel was filled with blind rage and the most severe pain she had ever felt. With no other purpose then to catch up with Legolas and his little companion in her mind Leyadriel through a riding cloak on her shoulders and boots on her feet before running out of the door.  
  
"Tirisila!" The woman had to gallop to keep up with Leyadriel's pace, "Yes, m'am?"  
  
"Tell my brother what has transpired and that I have gone after Prince Legolas and shall need him to attend to the needs of the elves for a few days."  
  
"But how do you know where to go?"  
  
"He said he was going to Valinor and there is only one elvish ship leaving this year! It leaves at dawn and is rather close. They have an hours start, I can only pray that that is not enough for them to reach the place before I."  
  
She reached the stables and looked at Du-amrun's stall, not wanting to take the expectant mare on a hard gallop that had to make a 5 hour trip in less then 4 hours, but she had no choice. Du-amrun was the only elvish horse that was in Gondor, as Arod's stall was vacant, that was fast enough. The horse seemed to sense her master's urgency. Regardless of her personal life, she would not cause Du-amrun to miscarry like she almost had already.  
  
"Du-armun? Can you do what I ask of you?" Leyadriel asked gently in the horse's ear, her anger temporarily forgotten, "A five hour gallop in less then four?"  
  
The horse neighed proudly and reared up on its hind legs, its black mane falling gorgeously over its snow white body, this was a yes and Leyadriel opened the stable door and hopped onto the mare's body and said, "My business is important but your health is more so, do not harm yourself my friend. I would rather run there then see you or your foal hurt or killed."  
  
And with that they took off at a gallop, faster then any other horse that Tirisila had ever seen, all the fury in Leyadriel's heart seemed to have sped her ride forward, and the old woman whispered, "Gods have mercy on Mistress Elaren, she will be killed."  
  
Both hearts were racing, both knew no pain nor fear, they knew not fatigue as they sped towards Anduin, the one place where an elvish ship was docked and its course set for Valinor.  
  
The journey did not take its toll physically on either one, for at one point Leyadriel whispered into Du-amrun's ear that Arod would surely be lost to Valinor with Legolas if they did not succeed in reaching the ship in time, and the mare gained speed like she had never done before. She knew what it was to loose the one you loved.  
  
As they galloped on their trail, they became optimistic when they saw the hoof prints in the ground, when they saw a swatch of cloth stuck to a branch along side the road that matched one of Legolas' tunics. But even as their hope rose, despair rose with it. The ground seemed to be sinking under their every step and the air got so thick that they couldn't breathe; it was as if the night was angry at her and trying to stop her.  
  
Tears of frustration began falling down her cheeks, and as she rode she began to scream, "Elbereth! If anyone in the world still loves me, allow me to reach the ship! Please! Saes!" {please}  
  
And from her perch above a mirror in Valinor, Galadriel perceived her Leyadriel's pleas and granted them. Through the extended hand of the Lady of Light the air lightened, the ground firmed and both horse and rider found a new wind in their lungs.  
  
But even a new wind could not stop the pain in Leyadriel's chest from weaving hopelessness into her heart...  
  
*She remembered fond kisses, sweet embraces. Words of love, promises to each other, promises to everyone.*  
  
'We will not make it in time.' She thought, 'I can feel it, this great sense of loss.'  
  
*Just hours before he had kneeled before her and asked for her hand, this had to be a horrible mistake. A trap, it had to be. Anything but what he had said. Anything but.*  
  
'We are close, very close. I can smell the sea, I can hear the gulls.'  
  
Around her the song of gulls filled the air and she pushed Du-amrun forward, the snow white mare sprinted through the trees that surrounded them. Leyadriel turned her head every which way looking for a ship and finally saw it and took off due west, straining her horse far past its usual limits. Finally the mare collapsed and Leyadriel flew off the horse's back which was rising and falling dramatically with the mare's breathing.  
  
But they were too late.  
  
The ship was already off shore but not far enough, she could still swim and possibly make it.  
  
"TAMPA! TAMPA, SAES!" {Stop, please!} She screamed and elves gathered on board, one was tall and looked like Legolas. He had long pale hair, an archer's slim build, a regal air about him and the chiseled face of her beloved. She was not completely sure it was him but she felt that it was someone of his house.  
  
"YA DONA LLE?" {Who are you}The question came from the Legolas look-alike and she heard the years behind his tone, this must've been Legolas' father Thranduil.  
  
"LEYADRIEL, TEL'VERNE A'NAUVA EN'LEGOLAS! IM ANTA YASSEN RO! IM ANTA ELEA RO! SAES! TAMPA!" {the wife to be of Legolas! I need to speak to him, I need to see him! Please stop!}  
  
Thranduil's face hardened even from the distance she saw it, "STAY AWAY FROM MY SON, FILTHY LIAR!"  
  
"Mani?" {what?} But the question was so soft that Leyadriel could barely hear it herself. Leyadriel climbed into the water and began to swim towards the great grey ship when a young blonde woman walked out onto the deck and upon seeing her stilled like a deer knowing it is to be killed.  
  
But then she laughed as if to cover her lapse in composure, "Far too late sister, far too late."  
  
It was a low growl, the voice that spoke but Leyadriel heard it above the roar of the water, and she knew who it was.  
  
"ELAREN! LLE-NIN! LLE COI DONA-NIN!" {Your mine! Your life is mine!}  
  
Upon hearing this the blonde turned to other elves on board and cried, "You let her talk to your princess like that? Kill her! Shoot her! She is not to reach this ship!"  
  
The elves around her notched arrows onto their bows and began shooting at the maid in the water, her reflexes were fast. Almost not fast enough, she dodged the arrows successfully but she could no longer pursue the ship and survive. In a moment of blind rage at Legolas, at her sister, at all the lies and confusion paining her heart she took off her engagement ring and threw it on the deck of the boat, "BETRAYAL OF THE HEART MAKES TRAITORS OUT OF EVEN THE MOST RESPECTABLE MEN! TAKE YOUR LYING TRINKET BACK! TRECHOROUS CAD!"  
  
'Why would Thranduil's archers listen to Elaren? What has she done? Why is she with him?'  
  
But she knew the answer to all her questions, 'The letter was true, Elbereth help me it was true!'  
  
She ceased even splashing in the water; she ceased breathing for a moment. Then the tears behind her eyes unleashed and she could not see with the waves from the ship and her own misery. This is when she caught an arrow in her right arm, breaking right through the bone of her upper arm. The pain of the wound was hidden by the pain of her heart breaking. Leyadriel let the waves crawl over her and take her under. A song reached her ears, one she never recalled hearing:  
  
...just when I thought I'd reached the bottom  
  
I'm dying again  
  
I'm going under  
  
drowning in you  
  
I'm falling forever  
  
I've got to break through  
  
I'm going under  
  
blurring and stirring the truth and the lies  
  
So I don't know what's real and what's not  
  
Always confusing the thoughts in my head  
  
So I can't trust myself anymore..  
  
I've got to breathe I can't keep going under  
  
("Going Under" Evanescence)  
  
'I've got to breathe!' Leyadriel realized, she had been sitting at the bottom of Anduin for a few minutes and her lungs felt like they were on fire. Her one arm was useless but she pumped her legs and used one arm and managed to reach the top. With a gasping cry she gulped air into her lungs greedily and struggled to get to shore without being swept under again. As the rough sand scratched her skin she just barely managed to crawl onto her hands and knees; she began to cough up water. The arrow in her shoulder had gone in at an angle so that it had scraped a lung and caused her to cough up blood with the sea water, as the last of the fluid raced past her lips she swallowed oxygen as though it were sugary sweet and fell onto her back as her breathing evened and her pulse slowed.  
  
The sun suddenly rose and its bright yellow rays hit her face as she finally calmed and she thought bitterly, 'I was right about one thing, I will never forget this night.'  
  
She closed her eyes, the stress and the fatigue were eating at her violently but before dreams could take her conscious and probably her life something gently nudged her face. Although she ignored it at first but it became more and more insistent until something gave a soft bite to the flesh at her hip.  
  
"Ouch!" Leyadriel cried and sat bolt upright. Beside her was a horse but not the mare she expected to see, it was a pale bodied horse of the Rohirrim, by the name of Arod, "Mani, Arod, mani?" {What}  
  
He neighed at her as if to chastise her for her temper with him and nodded behind him at something that she could not see.  
  
"Manka lle merna nin a'elea, pel!" {If you want me to see, move away!} She snapped and massaged her injured shoulder as the stallion stepped out of her line of sight, revealing a white bodied mare with a black mane laying on one side, her swollen belly heaving with effort.  
  
"Ai!" {Oh!} Leyadriel cried, "N'uma! Saes, uume tel' adulome!" {No! Not the baby!}  
  
Leyadriel crawled painfully over to her mare and threw her body against the horse's stomach, listening intently for signs of life or death within, hot tears streaming down her face as she pleaded with the fetus, "I could not bare your death along with that of my soul, little one, please pen neth, saes, do not die. Live. I am sorry I endangered you, I am sorry, ikotane hiraetha, saes uume gurtha." {Little one, so sorry, please do not die.}  
  
She sang a lullaby to Du-amrun as she had once done before when the mare was close to loosing the foal, she sang a soothing song to stop the horse's racing heart and spoke calmingly to her. For a full day Leyadriel and Arod stood beside Du-amrun nursing her, keeping her as healthy as the circumstances allowed. After the danger had most assuredly passed, Du-amrun stood and took a few wobbly steps to move herself under the shade of a tree at the edge of the forest.  
  
Around them the gulls sang of the sea and every time Leyadriel's mind wondered far enough to listen, it stabbed her heart and she felt a blackness crawl into the back of her eyes, the back of her mind, pleading her to fall into it and never surface but this she had already fought once, in the sea itself, and it was easier to fight it a second time.  
  
As they lay in the shade, eating apples ripe form the branches around them Leyadriel pulled the arrow out of her shoulder and bound the bleeding wound with a strip of fabric from her tunic. Then she suddenly looked to the two horses beside her and realized that Arod was there for the first time since he had woken her, then a thought dawned on her, "Why are you here? Shouldn't you be on that ship?"  
  
Arod snorted at her and then nuzzled into Du-amrun's swollen stomach as if to say, 'Why would I leave?'  
  
Leyadriel petted his neck and kissed his nose and Du-amrun's, "You two shall be happier then any other living creatures on this Middle Earth. I can see it."  
  
Her shoulder was bleeding so heavily that she had to change its dressings twice and although she had no appetite she kept eating so that she would not faint. With a loving pat to her mare's pregnant belly she reminded herself, 'Pregnant mare's should not be ridden this far along. How ever shall I get home?'  
  
She shrugged her shoulders, deciding that she didn't want to face anything. Not the truth, not the questions, not the worries and inquiries, and especially not thought. She hadn't done much thinking because it pained her to think back to her horrible predicament. Her heart felt cold, her skin was cool and clammy and she knew that if she did not confront and defeat her grief soon that she would become ill and maybe die from it but she didn't want to see it. She didn't want to make it real. Elbereth help her she wanted to forget, the eternal numbness and peaceful sleep of death would almost be a welcome distraction from the stabbing pain of the wound to her shoulder, which cause a nagging voice in the back of her conscious to keep saying, 'What happened? Did you even see her smug face? Your sister over you, and they shot at you. They tried to kill you.'  
  
With this Leyadriel closed her eyes and fell asleep, not caring if she was tortured, in fact she hoped she was. Any pain in her body would not hold a candle to the pain in her heart.  
  
*** Upon opening her eyes water immediately stung them, it was raining and she was drenched. She sat up and hissed as her shoulder cried out for attention. Leyadriel could not remember her dream, but her head ached like her shoulder. She put a hand to her forehead, but when she drew it back it was covered with blood. Her eyes widened and she crouched over a puddle, looking into its water and seeing that she had a gash across her head but it was not deep. Bleeding heavily, she struggled to find the horses that were not around her when she woke. They were neighing, calling and eventually she found them under a tree huddled together. She laid her head against Du-amrun's stomach and listened to the heartbeat of the foal inside her before muttering, "I envy you."  
  
She had lost a lot of blood but she did not know that, she did not know anything of her dire condition; she fell into unconsciousness as the two horses surrounded her with their mass trying to protect her, practicing for their roles as parents.  
  
But Leyadriel was too far gone to notice.  
  
***  
  
She had never felt the sting of betrayal so heavily in her heart; she had never felt such pain. She felt completely abandoned, so alone. She felt dead and she hated it, so loathed this feeling of numbness so absolute that she felt she would never wake from the sleep she had fallen into.  
  
Even though her lips did not move, her soul began to sing, loudly and clearly and brilliantly all the betrayal, all the sadness and the questions, all the feelings that she felt. She thought about her love, her Legolas and could feel his heart beating beside hers, she prayed that he could feel her song, could hear it in the hollows of his ears:  
  
how can you see into my eyes like open doors  
  
leading you down into my core  
  
where I've become so numb without a soul my spirit sleeping somewhere cold  
  
until you find it there and lead it back home  
  
(Wake me up)  
  
Wake me up inside  
  
(I can't wake up)  
  
Wake me up inside  
  
(Save me)  
  
call my name and save me from the dark  
  
(Wake me up)  
  
bid my blood to run  
  
(I can't wake up)  
  
before I come undone  
  
(Save me)  
  
save me from the nothing I've become  
  
now that I know what I'm without  
  
you can't just leave me  
  
breathe into me and make me real  
  
bring me to life  
  
frozen inside without your touch without your love darling only you are the life among the dead  
  
all this time I can't believe I couldn't see  
  
kept in the dark but you were there in front of me  
  
I've been sleeping a thousand years it seems  
  
got to open my eyes to everything  
  
without a thought without a voice without a soul  
  
don't let me die here  
  
there must be something more  
  
bring me to life  
  
I've been living a lie, there's nothing inside  
  
(Bring me to life- Evanescence)  
  
But the only person there to bring Leyadriel back from her grief, was herself. She alone could wake herself up; she alone could make herself alive again.  
  
***  
  
Time was a blur, life was a blur, every time Leyadriel opened her eyes it was briefly and anything that she saw was blurred. She didn't know where she was or why she was there, how long she'd been there or what to do. She wanted to get up, she wanted to wake up! She did!  
  
But it was so pleasantly ... void.... there was nothing there to hurt her, no bad memories, no horrible questions, no thinking. Nothing, just peace and quiet. An odd type of serenity that was addictive, and she knew should she stay here too long, it would be her death, it would be her fate to never leave this serenity unless she opened her eyes fully very soon...  
  
Her heart was beating, that's all that she heard, the pounding of blood in her ears and the she could just begin to feel another pounding against her body, it was an odd motion, jerky and fast. Powerful though, and strong but she couldn't identify it.  
  
It was blurred, everything was blurred.  
  
Black and white had become an ugly gray. Right and wrong no longer existed and she began to wonder if they ever truly had. Love and lust.... was there a difference? Which did she know and so clearly crave from Legolas? Which did he feel for her every time he kissed her? Held her? When he made love to her did he do it for love's sake or sex's?  
  
'Im anta atarnin.' She thought sadly, 'Im anta atarnin.' {I need my mother.}  
  
"Atara....atara." Leyadriel whimpered, the first words she had spoken in Elbereth only knows how long!  
  
Much to her surprise she got an answer, "She's not here, pen neth, she's gone. I'm here, Leyadriel, please wake up. Please, pen neth." {Little one.}  
  
"Eldarion?"  
  
"Leyadriel! Please fight! Open your eyes! Please please pen neth open your eyes!"  
  
Such a simple thing to do but it was a great struggle for Leyadriel to separate her eye lids and yet..barely...almost there! Light began to flood her sight for the first time in what seemed like an eternity.  
  
The pain of the light seemed worth it, Eldarion kissed her hand several times happily crying, "Diolla Elbereth! Diolla Elbereth! We thought for sure that you were gone, pen neth! Diolla Elbereth!" {Thank Elbereth}  
  
"Mani? Why would you think me dead? Mani marte?" {What? What happened?} Leyadriel responded wearily.  
  
"After you rode to Anduin like Sauron himself was chasing you, we all worried. Elaren and Legolas missing too and Pengwaith in the dungeons, you can not imagine what I went through trying to figure the situation out! Atar was at her wit's end! This proved too much for her, she knew that none of you were truly harmed when she set out; she said she could feel it in her heart, and we have not seen nor heard from her since. Then Arod and Du- amrun walk leisurely into Gondor with you, after you'd been missing a month, on Arod's back so deep into grief, so close to fading! And with a shoulder so infected it made a good many of our best healer's turn away in disgust! I thought for sure that I had lost you, little sister; I thought for sure that you were dead!"  
  
Eldarion's breathing was ragged and there were tears behind her eyes, "I am strong, Leyadriel, I am grown now, but loosing adar, atar and then seeing you on Mandos' Door? I am at my end, Leyadriel; I could not have born it if you had died as well."  
  
Leyadriel cooed and petted his hair in a maternal fashion as he held onto his younger sister, just reassuring himself that she was alright. After a time he told her of the recent events again:  
  
She had been gone a month, her mother had left for Cerin Amroth, and Pengwaith was still in the dungeons. Eldarion did not decide his fate, thinking it to be Leyadriel's decision.  
  
It was midnight now; the moon was full and high in the sky. Leyadriel sat on her windowsill and stared at it intently, tears behind her eyes. A month ago her life had been so happy, and now that she was awake, all her anger had faded and was replaced with simple pain. In the dead of the night she crooned a song of lament about her lost lover, hoping to soothe her heart into peace but knowing that she would fail:  
  
my immortal  
  
i'm so tired of being here  
  
suppressed by all of my childish fears  
  
and if you have to leave  
  
i wish that you would just leave  
  
because your presence still lingers here  
  
and it won't leave me alone  
  
these wounds won't seem to heal  
  
this pain is just too real  
  
there's just too much that time cannot erase  
  
when you cried i'd wipe away all of your tears  
  
when you'd scream i'd fight away all of your fears  
  
and i've held your hand through all of these years  
  
but you still have all of me  
  
you used to captivate me  
  
by your resonating light  
  
but now i'm bound by the life you left behind  
  
your face it haunts my once pleasant dreams  
  
your voice it chased away all the sanity in me  
  
these wounds won't seem to heal  
  
this pain is just too real  
  
there's just too much that time cannot erase  
  
when you cried i'd wipe away all of your tears  
  
when you'd scream i'd fight away all of your fears  
  
and i've held your hand through all of these years  
  
but you still have all of me  
  
i've tried so hard to tell myself that you're gone  
  
and though you're still with me  
  
i've been alone all along  
  
My Immortal by Evanescence (I really owe this band don't I?)  
  
The last word of the song left her lips and a tear fell from her cheek, she head hung low in sadness. But her ears perked as she heard something, a low song that could barely be heard by even her ears:  
  
my immortal  
  
i'm so tired of being here  
  
suppressed by all of my childish fears  
  
and if you have to leave  
  
i wish that you would just leave  
  
because your presence still lingers here  
  
and it won't leave me alone  
  
these wounds won't seem to heal  
  
this pain is just too real  
  
there's just too much that time cannot erase...  
  
"Mani?" {what?} She asked herself, who else was singing her song? It was an old song, one from generations before that had been taught to her by her mother when she was a little girl.  
  
She followed the voice, hoping that it would bring an end to her pain, or even that it would lead her to someone in as much pain as she. As if in a trance she followed it to a set of stairs that she slowly descended, her eyes glazed over and she no longer saw where she was going, she just kept hearing the song and hoping, praying, that it would mean an end to her pain.  
  
"Princess?" A voice asked and Leyadriel quickly fell out of her reverie.  
  
"Yes?" She looked at the guard who addressed her.  
  
"Was there a reason you were here, my lady?" The guard was stuttering slightly and blushing at her, she was only clad in a nightgown, having neglected her robe with her search for her song.  
  
"That song? Who is singing it?"  
  
"The same person who has been singing it for over a month." The guard rolled his eyes, "Third cell from the left, by the window."  
  
Leyadriel went three cells in from the left and saw by a window a figure huddled in the small circle of moonlight that was in its cell, still singing the song in a voice that was not ugly but could use some refinement. She couldn't help herself she sat down just outside the bars and sang along with the figure, who kept their back to her, and when the song ended she smiled at the prisoner.  
  
"Who do you sing for?"  
  
"Who do any of us sing for? A love that I lost and I yearn to regain." The voice was thin and cracked that of a man who was hungry and thirsty and had been for a time.  
  
She felt as though she should know the voice that spoke to her and yet she did not recognize it, "I sing for a love that is lost, but I am not sure if I want to regain it."  
  
"We all want love back, even if he hurt you, you still crave what is missing from your life."  
  
"Wise words from a man not wise enough to avoid being caught." Leyadriel quipped.  
  
The man shrugged, "Sometimes, we must pay for our crimes."  
  
"And what crime could such a songbird commit?"  
  
"Abuse. Physical abuse to someone that, now at least, will never love me."  
  
Leyadriel stiffened, "Then you do deserve to be here!"  
  
"What I did, I did when I was young and foolish. Only now that I cannot have her do I realize what I have lost."  
  
Suddenly the princess backed away from the cell, and regarded the shadowy figure with wide eyes as he turned and faced her, "I am so sorry, my beauty, so very sorry."  
  
She wanted to run but her legs wouldn't let her, Pengwaith came closer to the bars and spoke again, "I do not deserve you after what I have done but you need to know that I am sorry."  
  
A tear found its way down her cheek but before it could fall he reached a hand passed his bars and wiped it gently away.  
  
"I lied."  
  
Leyadriel looked at him, "About what?"  
  
"I learned a little Elvish."  
  
She smiled thinly, debating whether or not to give him her trust again, "Mani?" {what}  
  
"Lle naa vanima, Im meleth lle ikotane." {You are beautiful, I love you so.}  
  
Leyadriel backed away from the cell so that he could not touch her cheek any longer and more tears fell as he continued to speak, "Please, Leyadriel, I cannot bear to see you cry. Don't cry."  
  
This did not soothe her yet he continued to coo, "Whatever upsets you is not worth your grief, please my darling don't cry."  
  
Leyadriel needed to be held and comforted and needed, wanted and she flung herself against the bars, Pengwaith's arms shot out and held her, they gently rubbed her back trying to calm her.  
  
"Guards! Guards!" She called through her tears, "Open the cell! Open the cell!"  
  
The guards ran forward and opened the door, the princess vaulted inside and she allowed Pengwaith to encase her in his arms and pet her hair, kiss her brow and say soft and caring words to her.  
  
It felt so heavenly to be in someone's arms again, to be cooed to and caressed but it did not change that her heart was dead, laying cold and unbeating inside her chest. But within a week, Pengwaith was freed from his prison, within a week walking freely as he had not in a month's time. He doted on her when he was released, he bought her things and complimented her and was always trying to spoil her. But neither inwardly nor outwardly had he changed a thing, she let him do as he pleased except in her bedroom, which she had barred him from, but she was still hurt and numb and nothing he did could change that.  
  
One night he came to her screaming in desperation, "SKIES AND STARS MELETHNIN WILL YOU NOT TELL ME WHAT'S WRONG? PLEASE? Your agony is mine I cannot bear to see you suffer so! Every day I try to please you and every day I fail! Please spare me this torture! Tell me what is wrong!"  
  
Leyadriel would not reply, if she spoke of it the memories would plague her worse then before and she would only hurt more. She simply sat on a couch in her parlor and looked at her lap, as Pengwaith paced in front of her at his wit's end. Finally he sat next to her and put an arm around her waist, "I am sorry for screaming, meleth, but I feel so lost, so very confused. I do try, dearest, I do try."  
  
He was so different, so caring and gentle and he had never raised a finger to hurt her, but he was not Legolas, he never would be.  
  
'I don't love you, I can't love again.' She wished to say but could not bear to, 'Elves love once, only once, and it is only that one time that they are allowed. I cannot love again.'  
  
Taking her silence as a personal wound that he could not heal, Pengwaith put his head in the soft warm crook of her neck and burrowed it, trying to loose the lingering taste of failure from his lips. This would get him no where! He was supposed to be a King but it seemed as though the girl that had loved him and allowed him so much so freely had grown into a far wiser woman who was keeping him at a distance.  
  
Pengwaith kissed her cheek and walked to the door, "I may not be him, but do not hold that against me. I am a changed man. Good night darling, I pray your dreams are gentler on you."  
  
The door gave a soft click and it was closed. Leyadriel had been so oblivious to everything lately, it had been a week since Pengwaith had been freed, and all she did was wake in the morning go through the motions of her day and go to sleep at night. Sometimes substituting sleep for staring at the ceiling for hours.  
  
She was alive and yet she felt dead, she needed to feel like she had two months ago, five months ago, a year ago. She needed to feel her body coursing with energy, brimming with life not barely sustaining through a day. She was the queen of the elves of Middle Earth and here she was without a single spark in her eye.  
  
What would give her that exhilaration? What would jump-start her into life again?  
  
Leyadriel laid a hand over her eyes, feeling empty and useless and ugly and tired. Tired, elves did not usually feel fatigue but this was not physical. Her heart was tired of pretending that this was the life she wanted to have.  
  
But she loved pretending that this was what she wanted, loved having a faux purpose instead of no purpose at all.  
  
It was with this thought in mind that she opened her door and walked down the hall, Pengwaith was not far away, he had not yet left. She found him and tapped his shoulder and he turned around looking at her with mild surprise, "Leyadriel? What is it?"  
  
"Do I have a purpose? A real purpose?"  
  
Pengwaith looked at her oddly, "Of course."  
  
"Mani? Mani naa ta?" {What is it?} She put her hands on his tunic, gripping them with vice-like strength.  
  
He covered her hands with his and asked, "Why do you wish to know?"  
  
"To know if I have a purpose in life." She thought darkly, "Or if I should simply die."  
  
"Don't think such things!" Pengwaith cupped her face.  
  
"Then tell me what to think! Please. I need a purpose."  
  
Pengwaith smiled and traced the crown on her forehead, "I thought that rulers knew their purpose. Darling, being a Queen is like being a Mother, your responsibility, your purpose, is life itself. To preserve it, to better it, and" He leaned close to her ear and whispered seductively, "if you were up to it, to make life as well."  
  
Her eyes suddenly got a light behind them, "En rant." {Of course.}  
  
It was obvious to her now that her job was to care for her people, that was her purpose, not to be the reclusive grieving child inside the palace walls. She wrapped her arms around his neck and held him tightly with a strength that she had not had in what seemed like ages, "Diolla lle." {Thank you}  
  
He didn't know what she had said but he held her closer, his arms were strong around her and he said, "Don't ever think that you are not special, Leyadriel."  
  
He brought her eyes even with his and looked into them deeply, "Don't ever think that again."  
  
Pengwaith brought her lips to his and gently kissed her, when she didn't reject him he pushed past her lips to taste her mouth like he hadn't in years. Suddenly she moaned, she wanted this, this would kill the pain, this would end her agony..it had to.......  
  
She had chosen to do it, allowed him to do everything that he did. He was gentle, surprisingly so, and she felt no outward pain. But inside her whole body was itchy and uncomfortable. When he released inside her, it was like someone had released liquid fire into her body. She got out of the bed, tears streaming down her face and clutching her stomach, her womb, her entire middle, sobbing madly and trying to get the pain away. She doubled over and Pengwaith looked like a deer in headlights and tried to soothe her but when he took a step towards her she screamed, "GET OUT! GET OUT!"  
  
He looked confused, befuddled at why his lover would toss him out and why she was in so much pain but when he tried to ask she pushed him out of the door and locked it. Her pain had not lessened, her agony was only greater. This was her heart's way of telling her that Pengwaith was not Legolas, her soul's way of paying her back. The physical torture was only caused by the extreme emotional distress she was going through.  
  
A scream soared passed her lips and it was earsplitting, high pitched and full of pain.  
  
She sat on her windowsill and sang to herself, trying to distract her mind and body from its aches:  
  
i tried to kill the pain  
  
but only brought more  
  
i lay dying  
  
and i'm pouring crimson regret and betrayal  
  
i'm dying praying bleeding and screaming  
  
am i too lost to be saved  
  
am i too lost?  
  
my God my tourniquet  
  
return to me salvation  
  
my God my tourniquet  
  
return to me salvation  
  
do you remember me  
  
lost for so long  
  
will you be on the other side  
  
or will you forget me  
  
i'm dying praying bleeding and screaming  
  
am i too lost to be saved  
  
am i too lost?  
  
my God my tourniquet  
  
return to me salvation  
  
my God my tourniquet  
  
return to me salvation  
  
my wounds cry for the grave  
  
my soul cries for deliverance  
  
will i be denied Christ  
  
tourniquet  
  
my suicide  
  
(Tourniquet by Evanescence) (Yeah I owe them big)  
  
Pure regret stung her entire being, more grief then before. She has thought that trying to move on from Legolas, even if it was a lie, would help her but it was hurting her more.  
  
For three days she stayed locked in her room, she never moved once, just sat on her windowsill muttering the words of the song to herself and took notice that although the initial pain had subsided, there was still one tiny part of it, sitting there, not moving.  
  
On the third day of her recluse she got dressed and ventured out to breakfast, Pengwaith was there. He immediately came up to her, "My darling."  
  
But she held up a hand to stop him from talking and asked him, "What do you truly want? I will know if you lie."  
  
Pengwaith looked at her as a deer does when staring straight at the predator about to kill it and stuttered, "I want to be. be by your side."  
  
Leyadriel looked at him, no mercy or patience in her tired and hurt body, "That is not all."  
  
"I wish to be your Prince, my princess, I wish to be beside you and help you with the burdens of being a ruler."  
  
Her eyes lit, "I should have known that you had ambition." She pulled him close to her and whispered darkly, "Try anything and you shall go back to your wonderfully comfortable cell and I promise that it will be permanent."  
  
Pengwaith's eyes hardened, "You couldn't get the charges to stick!"  
  
"Rape, abuse, I could think of a thousand more if I tried. But you forget one thing, oh ambitious one. I am the Princess of Gondor, I am the Queen of the Eldar, I do not need a reason. It is one of those little benefits of power, I can get rid of as many leeches as I want and no one will question me."  
  
He was about to protest but she held up a hand sharply, "Don't test me."  
  
She sat down to a breakfast that she barely enjoyed, she no longer knew joy. Even her joyful memories were in a place she couldn't quite reach. Her previous self-pity and grief had been replaced with a short temper and a rage that simmered just below her frowning face, waiting to be unleashed.  
  
Her emotions were no longer her's to control.  
  
Only after a month of this anger, Eldarion confronted her.  
  
"Leyadriel? What has come over you?" I sat her down in the gardens; gardens she had been loathe to step into once more but she followed Eldarion there. He was probably the only male she would let near her, one of the few people that could still talk to her civilly.  
  
She sighed, "I lost control of my emotions. I hate the pain that I'm in and I hate that he's gone and if it's not anger its overwhelming sadness. I can't help it, Eldarion, the only person I love is across the sea with my..." She choked, "My little sister."  
  
Eldarion smiled at her smally, trying to cheer her up now that he knew what her problem was, but knowing he couldn't, "I'm worried for you, Leyadriel, you've been looking pale and eating oddly. You seem ill."  
  
"You can't cure my illness."  
  
"I want you to see a healer, please? In case it is something besides depression? Just in case? I don't want to worry about you anymore pen neth." {little one}  
  
"She won't be able to tell me anything that I don't already know about my condition, brother, I'm heartbroken and trying to live through it. You've heard mother's tales about Grandmother! She went through similar phases."  
  
Eldarion eyed Leyadriel suspiciously, "Grandmother was raped."  
  
Leyadriel blushed, "It's not rape, I wanted him to. But afterwards I found out just how painful it is to love anyone but your other. Yes it hurt, Eldarion and I've learned my lesson so don't dare chastise me."  
  
Eldarion bowed his head, a deep seeded love for his sister was telling him, warning him, that there was more to the circumstance then she was telling him.  
  
"Just see the healer, Leyadriel, that is a command. Not a request."  
  
Leyadriel wanted to protest but realized she owed her brother to listen to him. So she nodded, "I'll see her this evening."  
  
*** That evening***  
  
"MANI?!" Leyadriel screamed, "MANI DONA LLE YASSEN?" {What, what did you say?}  
  
The old woman Eldarion had sent up was shielding herself with her arms trying to fend off the princess' anger and shock, "A babe, mistress, a babe."  
  
Leyadriel grabbed a table and upturned it, shattering everything on its surface on the marble floor and screaming, "N'UMA! N'UMA!" {No!}  
  
The princess collapsed into a crying and screaming pile on the floor, "Ta uume nauva!" {It cannot be!}  
  
Suddenly Leyadriel stood up and faced the stump of a woman and shouted, "Get out! Get out! Get out! Get out! I demand a second opinion!"  
  
She all but threw the old woman out of her room and stormed down the hall, threw opened Eldarion's study and screamed, "SEND IN A HEALER FROM ITHILIEN! CALL IN OUR UNCLES! I DEMAND AN ELVISH OPINION!"  
  
Then she slammed the door shut, Eldarion looked up from his desk with the eyes of a man more confused then he has the ability to communicate. But he called an errand runner into his office and set the boy off to Ithilien with the request for a healer to come to Gondor, post haste, he added assuming that it was dire due to Leyadriel's tone.  
  
After the runner was off at a gallop, Eldarion took a breath and walked to Leyadriel's door. He knocked but no response came, he pushed the door open and saw a mess. Her whole room was torn apart and the vivid memory of this same scene months before came to his eyes. Worried, desperately worried, he dashed to the stable to see if Leyadriel was trying to make yet another escape from the Telcontar home.  
  
*He remembered the first time, he had to let her go, he had to, it was her time to fly away and leave the nest. But not now. Now she was far too emotionally disturbed, another adventure might kill her, or maybe? His heart sank, what had the healer told her to make her react so?*  
  
"Elbereth, pen neth! Saes, saes, nauva tereva." {Little one, please please be fine.}  
  
He came to the stables completely out of breath. Du-amrun and Arod were both in their stalls.  
  
"Manka dona lle, pen neth?" {Where are you, little one?} He muttered and Du- amrun whinnied at him, begging his attention.  
  
"Manka naa atarlle, Du-armun?" {Where is your mother?} He petted the horse's neck and then saw woven into her mane a small flower with blue petals and a pink centre, the buds were the size of his thumbnail, and they were braided into the mare's hair so delicately that he knew that Leyadriel had visited the stall. The flowers were called Almare-loth, or in the Common Tongue, Bliss Flowers. They were given to an expecting mother, their scent was said to be calming to the mothers and they were often woven into the woman's hair or made into a crown or a necklace fro her to wear. They were not often seen in Gondor, but Arwen had planted them in the gardens when she had become with-child and he had witness five more times how soothing the small flowers were to his mother. They were an elvish tradition, the handling of the fragile petals prepared one for handling a more fragile babe and the blue and pink colors were rumored to remind the parents to think of names for both sexes.  
  
"Should I go look for her?" He asked the horses and they both made the motion for no, both gave a fearful sort of cry and Eldarion listened to them, "Alright then, I'll let her approach me instead of seeking her out, but I am so worried. I promised my father that I would watch over my sisters; Leyadriel and Elaren make that promise very difficult to keep."  
  
***Flashback to a little while earlier when Leyadriel left Eldarion's office***  
  
She ran, she ran as fast as her legs could carry her and she found herself in her mother's old garden. It was one she rarely visited, Arwen's little haven where her children gave her the courtesy of not disturbing her. Almost in respect of her memory, they had not really gone into it since she had left. And yet here was Leyadriel, tip-toeing through the gardens as though she were on top of her mother's grave itself, she had been screaming a second before but now her voice was quiet, she was almost afraid to speak. Then she saw them, a large patch of Almare blossoms and for some reason her heart melted and she got a warm feeling in the pit of her stomach. She smiled for the first time in months and knelt down in the ground, gently picking up the flowers and laying them in her skirt which she held so that it was like a basket.  
  
Leyadriel lightly ran her fingers over the petals that were as tiny as a baby's fingernail and inhaled deeply. This was a soothing place, twas now no small wonder to Leyadriel why her mother would spend so much time in these gardens. She felt cut off from the world in a very positive way, like she was in a small corner of paradise.  
  
Feeling better then she had a moment before (she had been screaming down the halls yelling about the maddeningly dim ways of mortals) and now her heart left years younger. She nearly skipped to the stalls to visit Du- amrun, intending to give the mother-to-be the pregnancy flowers. When she entered the stall she was wearing a soft smile and sighed as she petted them, "Life is treating you so well, my beauty."  
  
Leyadriel leapt up on the horse's back and whispered that she was putting some flowers in her mane and not to rear up unless she wanted to crush her mistress and the horse whinnied as if in laughter. It had been many many years since Leyadriel had last braided flowers and she laughed happily as she did. She was a fast worked, her nimble fingers weaving the hair and the stem of the flowers as if they had been doing this for years. At one point Arod came over to inspect Leyadriel's work and when he was satisfied, tried to eat some of the flowers but was pushed away by a gently chastising Leyadriel.  
  
"N'uma, Arod, they are not for you to eat."  
  
Leyadriel was suddenly done with the mane and looked around to continue, eyeing Arod who gave her a look that clearly told her not to try it and then was content to braid Du-amrun's tail identical to her mane. Du-amrun had the look of a pampered and contented horse when Leyadriel kissed her muzzle, saying, "I've naught else to do. Do you know what they told me, today? They told me I was pregnant. Absurdity and nonsense."  
  
The horse through her a look that questioned that to which Leyadriel smiled and answered, "Elvish seed can only fall where its welcome and Legolas and I had agreed to postpone the thought of children."  
  
Leyadriel rubbed the swollen belly of her horse and then concentrated hard one the foal and felt it, it was getting bigger, stronger and Leyadriel could not have been happier. Then a cloud of doubt came to her mind and she looked down at her stomach, she was curious but she knew this was one of those questions that one regretted knowing the answer to.  
  
But she placed her hands over her womb and concentrated hard. Closing her eyes she suddenly found her answer and they popped open in wide surprise.  
  
"Ai! Elbereth."  
  
She backed away from her horse slowly, she eyes still wide, her mind not comprehending the information that was just given to it. She felt again and again and it was true every time, there was a small babe inside of her. Small, fragile but there. In existence. A tiny life.  
  
"Ya naa adarlle? Im you-rangwa." {Who's your father? I don't understand.}  
  
She nearly tripped as she turn and dashed back to her mother's garden. There she kneeled at the foot of a small statue of Arwen's own mother, Celebrian, and looked at the grandmother she had never known, wishing that her mother were with her right now.  
  
She prayed:  
  
catch me as i fall  
  
say you're here and it's all over now  
  
speaking to the atmosphere  
  
no one's here and i fall into myself  
  
this truth drives me into madness  
  
i know i can stop the pain if i will it all away  
  
don't turn away  
  
don't give in to the pain  
  
don't try to hide  
  
though they're screaming your name  
  
don't close your eyes  
  
God knows what lies behind them  
  
don't turn out the light  
  
never sleep never die  
  
i'm frightened by what i see  
  
but somehow i know that there's much more to come  
  
immobilized by my fear  
  
and soon to be blinded by tears  
  
i can stop the pain if i will it all away  
  
don't turn away  
  
don't give in to the pain  
  
don't try to hide  
  
though they're screaming your name  
  
don't close your eyes  
  
God knows what lies behind them  
  
don't turn out the light  
  
never sleep never die  
  
fallen angels at my feet  
  
whispered voices at my ear  
  
death before my eyes  
  
lying next to me i fear  
  
she beckons me shall i give in  
  
upon my end shall i begin  
  
forsaking all i've fallen for i rise to meet the end  
  
("Whisper" by Evanescence)  
  
Leyadriel had tears streaming down her face, she had never asked for any of the hardships of her life and didn't understand what she had done to deserve them. She screamed, "WHAT HAVE I DONE? TELL ME WHAT I HAVE DONE!"  
  
But no one answered. No one ever did.  
  
She placed a hand over her womb and spoke gently to the life inside of her, "I will give you this advice, little one, never sleep, never die."  
  
Leyadriel dried her tears and sat for a moment in the garden and wove a crown of Almare flowers that she held gingerly in her hands, almost fearing to put them on her head and accept that she was going to be the mother of a babe.  
  
"Saes, uume nauva va adarlle." {Please don't be like your father.} She whispered as she walked to her room, for this had to be Pengwaith's doing. She had not told her horse a lie, *elvish* seed did not fall when not welcome, but she now remembered something her mother had once told her.  
  
*small Flashback*  
  
"When I was your age, pen neth, I used to dream of having a lovely house and garden with two children, a boy and a girl."  
  
"But Atara you have six children, slightly more then two."  
  
"If your father had been an elf we could have stopped after just two."  
  
"Why?" The younger Leyadriel looked at her mother puzzled.  
  
"Elvish seed only falls where it's welcome, if I had not wanted any more children I would not have gotten pregnant."  
  
"And humans are not the same?"  
  
"Human seed falls whenever and wherever it wishes to fall. But I don't regret it, I love you all."  
  
*End Mini Flashback*  
  
Leyadriel swore slightly under her breath, "But I do regret it, Atara."  
  
Leyadriel reached her room and looked into it, not fancying to clean up the mess she had made she kept walking and found a room that had not been used for a month. Her mother and father's old bedroom. She found it a little dusty but still clinging to the comforting scent of both of her parents, she inhaled deeply and walked over to Arwen's full-length mirror. She brushed off the cobwebs and the dust and looked at herself.  
  
She placed the flower crown on her head and looked so much like her mother had, every time Arwen was having a baby she would wear the flower crowns for months. She touched the mirror hoping that it really was her mother, but it was only cold glass showing her what she looked like. Then she touched her stomach, she turned side-ways and tried to see herself with the popped out stomach that could only mean pregnancy.  
  
She realized she would have to tell Pengwaith and, if her honor meant a thing to her, wed him to keep the decency of her name.  
  
Was this what she wanted?  
  
No.  
  
She wanted to run away, she hated this life, she hated what was happening. She wanted to change it, hide from it, and leave it for someone else to suffer through.  
  
But she wouldn't hurt the babe. She would never hurt the babe; it had done nothing to deserve her anger. She was going to be a mother now, and she would have to do it with a smile even if the smile was strained.  
  
Hello I'm the lie living for you so you can hide.  
  
A/N- I WANT REVIEWS. This fucking chapter nearly killed me, asked those of you who had to pre-read it to check it and knew how hard it was to keep up the energy. I realize the chapter is late in coming but I do have a life.  
  
By the way, not only am I completely worn out from this chapter but I also have a very eventful few weeks ahead of me so the next chapter will be slow. I warn you now.  
  
Sorry for this chapter being confusing and with a bitchy tone, it was choppy but I am proud of it. 


	42. One Toe Out of Line

A/N- There was ...confusion about who's the daddy...this chapter should clear that up. Sorry if it breaks any hearts.  
  
Really sorry its short but I don't have the strength in my to go too much longer, bad migrane, lots of try outs, tired. School soon.  
  
Chapter 42- One toe out of line..  
  
"WHAT?!" Pengwaith roared. There was the tone of disbelief but a hint of joy behind his shock, "IT can't be! It simply cannot be!"  
  
"Believe me, if there were even the slightest chance that this were not true, I would not be telling you."  
  
"I cannot believe it." He sat on the bed with a look of utter amazement painted on his face as if by an artist.  
  
"Do try to, you have less then a year before you have to deal with it." Leyadriel snapped, not pleased with Pengwaith's less then enthusiastic response, "And this is your fault."  
  
"How is it my fault? The child is not in my womb! I don't even have a womb!"  
  
"I did not get myself pregnant!"  
  
"I thought elves could choose when they did or did not want to conceive?"  
  
"Only with other elves...." Leyadriel trailed off.  
  
Pengwaith picked up on the open end of her sentence, "Is it really mine or are you just telling me it is because he left you?"  
  
Leyadriel looked at him with unspoken anger behind her eyes , "Don't dare speak to me of Legolas!"  
  
"IS IT MINE OR HIS, LEYADRIEL?!?!"  
  
"I *WISH* IT WERE HIS BUT IT IS NOT, IT IS MY GREAT MISFORTUNE TO CARRY *YOUR* CHILD, ACCEPT THAT!"  
  
"Prove that it isn't his." Pengwaith hissed.  
  
Leyadriel huffed angrily, "I did not wish to have his children yet because I was not sure if my curse would carry into them, it need only the Telcontar blood with elvish heritage and it would surely be shown. I would not curse my child like that. But you! Human seed elves cannot control with their wills! Even though I do not want the child I have it, tis there as plain as day for those who can sense it. I assure you that it is as much to my distaste as yours."  
  
"How do I know that you are not lying to me? How do I know that you didn't conceive his child and simply deny that he is the father?"  
  
"Because if it were his, it would be older. As it is yours it is only a month old, if it were Legolas' babe it would be at least three months old."  
  
"How do I know you are not lying to me about the age?"  
  
"Because I bled every month until this one, this is your babe Pengwaith. And children come with responsibilities that I expect you to take."  
  
Pengwaith hesitated, "Such as?"  
  
"I cannot go unwed, for one."  
  
At this an unexpected smile came to the Lord's face, "As you wish, my Lady."  
  
Leyadriel nodded and began to walk away but Pengwaith called after her, "What of my coronation? Before of after the birth of our child? Obviously the wedding need be before, but when shall my crowning be?"  
  
The Queen's head snapped around, "Never."  
  
Pengwaith's jaw dropped, "What?"  
  
"You are not to be crowned. Not to the elves nor the humans, you are simply to wed me so that I will not be seen as a whore or a harlot."  
  
He stuck his chin out at her, "Then I shan't marry you."  
  
She quirked an eyebrow in an almost playful manner, "Really? Why not?"  
  
"If I shall not be given respect as a King or a Prince then I shall not claim responsibility for a child that I cannot be guaranteed is mine!" He spat.  
  
She smiled a tad maliciously, "They can show you the blood stained rags if you wish, to prove that I ran my courses before now. And as for you not marrying me, you have no choice in the matter."  
  
"Why not?"  
  
"I shall send you to jail for the rest of your miserable life if you don't, I shall allow every torture imaginable to be pressed upon you. Did I not explain once to you the joys of being royal? I don't need to have proof if I want you behind bars. But I have proof nonetheless. There has been a warrant for you for rape and abuse since we were adolescences, do not think that my letting you out has erased the document." Leyadriel stalked up to him and grabbed his collar pulling him down so that she could look him in the eye, "Do not press me, Pengwaith. You will do as I say."  
  
He pulled away from her viciously and grabbed a small dagger from his boot, "What say we fix you? What say that? Fix our little mistake? A fall down the stairs, the wrong herb in your tea, tis an easy thing to correct..."  
  
"Don't try to fix me I'm not broken!" She screamed before laying a hand over her infant, "I'm not broken."  
  
Pengwaith's eyes darted back and forth as if reading over a document quickly, a babe would ruin his scheme; completely ruin it, a marriage he would love spare that once a babe was announced Leyadriel would be watched day and night by everyone. There would be no killing her.  
  
Leyadriel saw this treachery in his gaze and pulled him down to her level again, "'One toe out of line and husband or no, to the dungeons ye shall go.' A little advice Elrond gave my father, I suggest you take it to heart."  
  
She walked out of the room, leaving Pengwaith fuming at this inconvenience and trying to plot around the arrival of a child. Meanwhile, Leyadriel walked to her brother's chambers and knocked on the door, "May I come in Eldarion?"  
  
There was the distinct sound of clothing being rushed on and the sound of a kiss, Leyadriel heard a whisper, "Come tomorrow, Naeva, this could be important."  
  
"Always your sister over me, I am beginning to think that you plan our affair around her."  
  
"Nonsense, she just has impeccable time at interrupting."  
  
Leyadriel gave a small laugh as Eldarion opened the door and the girl curtsied to her princess and left, she was a servant in the house, she had been for years. The maid's eyes followed the human girl until she was out of sight, "Im hiraetha, Eldarion. I did not know I would be interrupting something."  
  
"You did not.."  
  
"You forget that elves have better hearing then mortals, our ears are not pointed for the express purpose of our sisters pulling on them like toys." They both smiled at the memories or little Galaniel pulling so hard of Leyadriel's ear that they both cried when Arwen pushed them apart, "She seems young for you."  
  
"Only seventeen but.." He trailed off, "You wanted to see me?"  
  
"I have two announcements for you."  
  
"Do you?" His eyes brows shot up in surprise, "What would they be?"  
  
"I am going to get married within the next three months."  
  
Eldarion's eyes narrowed, "To whom?"  
  
"Pengwaith, and I am as displeased about it as you."  
  
"Manka ho?" {Why him?} Eldarion groaned, "Elves can only marriage once! Why waste your chance at happiness on him?"  
  
"Nay, Eldarion, elves can only *Bind* once, and humans are not capable of binding to elves. This is why Luthien and mother both needed to become mortals to be with their beloved. I can marry Pengwaith and not be affected by it."  
  
"You said sleeping with him was torture for you."  
  
"I did, that is an experience that I shan't be repeating."  
  
"Then why are you marrying him? Im uume rangwa!" {I don't understand.}  
  
Leyadriel blushed and looked at her feet, "I'm pregnant with his child and I cannot remained unwed."  
  
"MANI!!!!!!" {WHAT} Eldarion roared and looked fit to kill.  
  
"Calm down Eldarion, I cannot help it and I will not change it. I shall not purposely kill an innocent babe, the child should not have to pay for my mistakes! I will marry to save our family honor and I shall keep the child and raise it as though I wanted it all along."  
  
Eldarion put a hand to his head and muttered to himself so softly that even Leyadriel did not hear him, he looked so like his father just then, rugged and wild with a short stubble of a beard and a weight on his shoulders that he could not help.  
  
"Im hiraetha, Eldarion, Im hiraetha." {I'm sorry.}  
  
"Don't apologize to me. Apologize to that babe for already ruining its chance at a happy normal life." He snapped before taking a breath, calming himself, "I shall help you with the wedding and have a healer watch you. I shall call our uncles in from Imladris, I will need as many eyes on your..husband... as I can get."  
  
Leyadriel gave a small smile and hugged her brother, "I promise to be as good a mother to my babe as our mother was to us."  
  
He held her hard to him, not wanting to let his baby sister go, "I know, Leyadriel, I'm sorry for saying that. You will be a most excellent mother."  
  
*** Two Weeks Later a Gondorian Errand Runner Arrives in Imladris***  
  
Elladan scanned the note that was sent from his nephew and groaned in deep anger. Eldarion had, of course, updated them on Leyadriel and Legolas' breaking apart, of the Mirkwood Prince running off to Valinor with Elaren, and of Leyadriel nearly fading. But news of this human in their niece's bed had not been heard in Rivendell until this eve.  
  
"ELROHIR!" He called through the halls, "ELROHIR! Tula sinome!" {Come here.}  
  
"Mani, Elladan?" Elrohir stepped out of one of the balconies and faced his twin brother. When he was handed a note he read it carefully.  
  
When he finished he set ripped the note into pieces and flung it into one of the waterfalls all but growling in anger. He took several deep breathes trying to calm himself before laughing almost darkly, "I particularly enjoyed Leyadriel's post script, 'I have already warned him: One toe of line and husband or no, to the dungeons ye shall go.'"  
  
Elladan joined in the dark laughter at this point, "I suppose Arwen had her reasons for .. Altering father's warning. The children would not have liked to hear the true one."  
  
Elrohir smiled, "I think we should go to Gondor and teach it to our new nephew-in-law. Don't you?"  
  
They walked side by side to the stables and recited the true words of Elrond's warning to Aragorn, "One toe out of line and husband or no, to the dungeons ye shall go, But not before ye has learned my scheme, Hurt my maid and ye shall scream."  
  
A/N- Yeah it's a bit short. THAT LITTLE POEM IS MINE. Sorry had to make that clear. Also.. I know you don't want to hear it... but the time with Leyadriel is coming to a close. I have other ideas for a LOTR fan fic with a dash of Legomance. If you liked Daughter of Telcontar (I should hope so if you've read all 42 chapters) then I would like to know what the majority of you would like to read next. Which plot line:  
  
*Gilaren's Story: Gilaren is ten years younger then Legolas, born to Mirkwood Lords but raised by kin in Lothlorien. She and Legolas meet when they are a each nearing their coming of age at 500. Thranduil has insisted Legolas find a wife soon, owing to the fact that he is the only child of Thranduil unwed. Glosanor is the daughter of well respected Lords and she is pushed in his direction. But he weds the soldier he meets by the name of Gilaren, only to fid out that she is Glosanor's disowned sister. Glosanor then wreaks havoc to get Legolas' binding to Gilaren annulled....and succeeds. What shall happen to them?  
  
* Morwen's Tale: Morwen is the daughter of an elvish soldier captured from one of the early wars between Sauron and the Eldar. When the Last Alliance came, the small elfling tortured by the Dark Lord was found by Elrond of Rivendell and taken in. When the Fellowship is formed, she may have more to offer then any if she can face what she so fears: Mordor.  
  
*Lithil's Tale: Lithil has been a servant in Thranduil's house since she was a mere century old. She and the youngest Prince became lovers after a time but she wanted them to keep it secret, to which Legolas agreed. He never understood why she wished to keep it a secret until someone recognizes her for what she truly is: An Heiress the Elves of the Gray Havens (well it may be a different place later but for now stick with it). Lithil tells him that she ran away from home when she was young, but why would she wish to do that? Legolas must soon discover if he ever wants to keep her.  
  
If you guys either email me @ furkin1712@aol.com or tell me in your review, I will start the writing of it soon so that when Daughter of Telcontar ends, we can have something else for all you lovely readers waiting the wings. Don't forget my co-authored story under the penname Vardaparmawen another story for those long gaps inbetween Daughter updates.  
  
SORRY THE CHAPTER WAS SO SHORT, I WILL MAKE IT UP TO YOU, I PROMISE!  
  
COMING SOON:::: The birth of the foal! 


	43. The Troubles of King Thranduil pt1

Chapter 43- The Troubles of King Thranduil  
  
A/N- If anyone is still reading this they get a major major major cookie. Email me for it it you want to see a *partial* pic of Lego and Le.  
  
Also, Lithil's Tale won out, look under my penname for the new story which will be VERY VERY VERY VERY slow to update UNTIL Daughter of Telcontar is finished. I am also going to start a Harry Potter fic so be on the look out for that.  
  
Hope you enjoy it, it was a bitch to write because I was burned out from the last few.  
  
To clear up the time issue, Le realizing she's preggers happened FIVE MONTHS BEFORE THIS CHAPTER. So in theory she is around five months pregnant at the time this is all taking place. S-A-V-V-Y?  
  
***  
  
Something was wrong, that was the only thought that went through Legolas' mind since he had fully awoken, something was out of place.  
  
He was pacing in his room, his door locked with the occasional knock coming to it and there was a plate of fruit and a goblet of wine untouched on his nightstand.  
  
"What's happened to you, meleth?" He whispered to himself, "What's wrong?"  
  
No answer came spar the weight in his chest that was begging him to run to his beloved and help her, save her! It was nearly killing him, his urge to hold her and kiss her and make love to her just to assure him that she was safe in his arms. The golden prince let loose a frustrated growl that made him sound like a beast trapped in a cage it could not escape from.  
  
"Legolas?" The voice came to the door, a voice that both saved and condemned him.  
  
"Leave me alone, adar." Legolas called, "Leave me."  
  
A more persistent tone of steel lay behind the voice this time and the King called, "Forgive me for worrying about my son who almost *died*, forgive me for fearing to leave him alone is to see *someone else I love die!* VARDA'S GREEN EARTH OPEN THIS DOOR LEGOLAS!"  
  
As the last sentence fell off his lips with desperation laced on the words, it made the young prince's heart constrict. He could not respond to his father because a painful memory came from his past, the ghost of his mother was suddenly dancing and laughing behind his eyes.  
  
She was laughing with a smile that met her eyes fully, she grabbed the small hands of a very young Legolas and showed him how to move in time with the music, then the memory came of a different day. An adolescent Legolas was fuming after a fight with his father and his sister, his substitute mother, cooed to him, "You may not understand now why he does what he does, but when fatherhood is upon your shoulders you shall."  
  
"How do you know I'll ever understand him and his nonsense?!" Legolas yelled, still angry at Thranduil.  
  
"Because I never understood why mother and father acted the way they until I had to be a mother to you."  
  
Back then the realization dawned on him of the truth of her words but he had never actually understood until now.  
  
He came out of the memory with a more sober, calm mind then he had had in days and crossed to the door.  
  
"What do you want, adar?" He called.  
  
Thranduil gave a relieved sigh, "Just to see you, you've been locked in there for nigh on a week."  
  
A pang came to Legolas' chest, if he was his father he would want exactly what Thranduil wanted. After his wife's death Thranduil existed solely for his children and consequently worried for them profusely praying not to loose someone else. When Legolas' sister left for Valinor, Thranduil was near broken, the youngest prince could not imagine how painful it had been for his father to sit beside him as he nearly faded from this world.  
  
The lock of the door clicked and it swung open, much to Thranduil's shock, he had expected his son to keep him locked away not to let him in.  
  
"Tula, adar." {Come father} Legolas said as he looked out the window, his frustration returning.  
  
"Mani naa ta, Legolas?" (What is it?} Thranduil set blue eyes on his son that were the same as on Legolas' fair face.  
  
"Something's happened to her, adar, something horrid, I can feel it and it burns a void into my heart." Legolas stared out the window in a hopeless attempt to see her and help her.  
  
The color suddenly drained from Thranduil's face, ever since waking no one had dared tell Legolas about what they had done for he had refused to believe a single word Elaren uttered, "Son, there is something you should know.."  
  
Immediately Legolas sensed his ominous tone and sat down staring at him expectantly, "Mani naa ta?" {What is it?}  
  
A/N- Ok, for the sake of updating I am going to give you a cliff hanger here but if you can figure out what Thranduil is going to be breaking to poor Leggy-loo-loo it really wont matter. In other news please check out Lithil, the newest baby, and since I enjoy torturing myself I might even put up Gilaren's story simply because she's constantly running around my head. However, watching the Return of the King Trailer (which if you haven't seen you are truly dim) makes me think of Morwen who is not so Mary- Sue-ish and woman joins the fellowship as she sounds.  
  
Sorry for the short Update, I PROMISE to get another update soon. I have more to this chapter written I just figured that we'd all gone too long. 


	44. The Troubles of King Thranduil pt2

A/N- Been very busy so I'll try to give longer chapters but its just not working out like that. I'm sorry if its short.  
  
Chapter 44- The troubles of King Thranduil pt.2  
  
A dark silence followed and Thranduil's eyes grew guilty. Legolas jumped up and demanded, "Tell me, adar!"  
  
Thranduil put an arm around his son's shoulder and coaxed him to sit down, Legolas could smell fear and guilt hanging off his father like stale wine, it was so thick in the air he could scarcely breathe.  
  
"Legolas, what were you planning on doing about your current situation?" Thranduil's voice was quiet, pensive; he was trying to tread lightly. After all, Legolas was not yet back to full health.. Thranduil grimaced slightly because he knew Legolas never would be until he was in his love's arms again and that would never happen.  
  
"To go back to her, to be with her again as quickly as possible."  
  
"Son, once we reach Valinor..."  
  
"Do not bore me with the rumors that those who leave Valinor are damned to never return; death will not stop me from being with her certainly no wife's tale shall dissuade me from my course."  
  
"IT is not that, Legolas. I have no doubt of your resolution but those rumors have not been proven false. Do not become Amroth, my son. Saes, stay in Valinor, there your love will remain evergreen and no grief shall mar you."  
  
"Why should I worry of grief? Soon enough I shall be able to hold her in my arms and then my love shall never fade, no sadness shall ever shadow my joy again."  
  
"Legolas-" Thranduil began remembering the Mirkwood archers sending a fragile looking maid to the bottom of Anduin and turning the water red also remembering the princess' harsh words as she threw her engagement ring onto the deck of the ship, "What if she couldn't join you? What if she didn't want to?"  
  
Legolas regarded his father sharply, "Why wouldn't she wish to come?!"  
  
"Sit down..."  
  
"WHY?!"  
  
Thranduil's patience was gone and the answer flew rudely from his lips, "Re dona gurtha, Legolas!!" (She is dead)  
  
The words echoed in the prince's ears and his heart lurched painfully in his chest as though it had been stabbed, "N'uma, re udona." {No she is not dead.}  
  
"Legolas I know it's hard to accept..."  
  
"I need not accept it, its not true!" Legolas cried.  
  
"Denial will not make it easier!" Thranduil knew from experience that when your mate died..living and accepting were the last two things you wanted to do.  
  
Legolas' blood boiled to hear such words from his father, "And drinking myself into stupors will, I suppose?! Leaving my children to fend for themselves will help I suppose?!" He screamed, his face red with fury remembering Thrnaduil 200 year grievance period where the king scarcely ever came out of his wine cellar and left his children to raise themselves after his wife died, "I have NOTHING to live for with her gone! No children, no throne, no wine cellar to bind me to this earth! If she were dead, I would be, adar, make no mistake of that."  
  
Legolas' tone was little more then a hiss.  
  
A/N- Short I know and I'm really really really sorry. But hey, its an update. Inch by inch we approach the end of this story. I think by Return of the King time you guys will be drowning your sorrow at the end of this fic with three and a half hours of Legolas!!! (Official running time is three and a half hours! Yay!!)  
  
Also there seems to be a problem emailing the pictures! If you asked for one and did not receive it please email me and tell me so! I will prolly wind up giving it a webpage. Fear not, you guys will see the picture! 


	45. The Engagement Ring and Thranduil's Woes

A/N- look at the updating fiend! Woohoo!  
  
Chapter 45- The Engagement Ring and Thranduil's Woes  
  
Thranduil stood aghast as though he'd been slapped in the face, his son's rage catching him off-guard. He was angry at Legolas' words but calmed himself, anger and grief were best not combined.  
  
"Did you ever wonder how Elaren came by that ring?" The King chirped quietly, nodding to the engagement ring Legolas was fondling.  
  
The prince held the ring close to his body, and at his father's words he turned his back to the elf, shielding the small piece of metal with his body as though it were Leyadriel herself. In a quick, protective tone he hissed, "The filthy thief probably stole it from her sister's very hand!"  
  
"N'uma Legolas." Thranduil heaved a sigh of sadness for his son, "N'uma." {No.}  
  
"How could you know? You're not bound to her!" Legolas was snarling at his father.  
  
"Nor are you!" The old King sat on the bed and buried his head in his hands, "You must understand me, son, you must understand what happened. For a year we in Mirkwood have been receiving letters presumably from you for they were in your handwriting. They bore similarities to letters you normally send, there was always the crumpled top left corner, next to your signature there was a small drawing of a mallorn leaf in memory to your mother, sister and nephew," Thranduil paused at Legolas' puzzled expression, for the prince has never sent such letters and few people knew his habits for writing letters, "so you see Legolas we had no reason to doubt that the letters were authentic. They told us of a daughter of Aragorn," at the name of the Ranger the King gave a disproving glance but continued, "that you had fallen in love with but you despaired for she was mortal. No word reached us of Leyadriel spare that she fancied herself in love with you. Elaren was described as a Galadriel reborn, someone infatuated with elven culture but not graced with immortality. Then the letters said that you were building a ship destined for the Grey Havens for the call of the sea was too great. You apparently loved her and wished for her to journey with you and thought she may not be accepted because she was mortal and requested your brothers and I to journey with you."  
  
"None of that is true." Legolas spat his words through gritted teeth, the frustration of having his life controlled as though he were a puppet and never knowing it until know near killing him.  
  
"I did not know." Thranduil shook his head sadly and patted his son's shoulder before continuing, "When we arrived we saw Elaren in a horrid state of distress crying over your body not understanding what had happened to you. We asked what had happened and upon seeing you up-close, I knew you were fading," his words faltered momentarily as great pain washed over his face, "I... I .... recognized...the .the signs." The old King bowed his head so he could collect himself and for a moment, Legolas pitied him.  
  
"I hated the girl who did that to you...to me. I hated her with such a passion that I cannot convey to you. I wanted her to suffer as a consequence for what she did. Like those damned dwarves..like how their cave killed your mother...I wanted every last dwarf on Middle Earth tortured until they all regretted it! I wanted them screaming for mercy I would never give them.. that's what I wanted for the one Elaren blamed..for Leyadriel.." Tears formed at the corner of Legolas' eyes and he stiffened, "What did you do?"  
  
"She road like Mordor's wrath was behind her, and she screamed and called to the ship. I heard a maid's cry... I went to see what was happening," Thranduil vividly remembered the event, "She called out for us to stop the ship she was swimming towards us calling out for us to stop. I saw her and recognized the beauty of Arwen in her face; I knew this was her daughter. Nonetheless, I asked who she was. Hoping beyond hope that it was a different daughter... She claimed to be your betrothed, and I called her a liar to her face. I walked away from the edge, fearing further rage on my part. She threatened Elaren and was coming closer to the ship. Elaren ordered the archer's to shoot and they did...at first Leyadriel dodged them. I could see in her eyes the hurt and betrayal and she threw that ring on board cursing you for your treachery. Then..then.."  
  
"Then?" Legolas' lips were tight with fury but his voice was soft with fear.  
  
"An arrow." Thranduil's voice betrayed his regret, "She took it in her right arm and I could hear the bone snap. She sank...she disappeared under the water. Elaren didn't see her sink..but I did. The water was stained red and.."  
  
"ENOUGH!" Tears flowed down Legolas' face, "Say no more, my heart cannot bear it."  
  
Thranduil clapped a hand on his son's shoulder, "I am sorry that you buried your young bride before your wedding. No husband should ever need do that."  
  
As the old King walked out of the room he heard his son speak resolutely, "I will believe she is dead when I see her dead body taken out of her grave, be it Anduin's waters or Gondor's plains."  
  
"What happens when you see that, Legolas?"  
  
The prince bowed his head, whose gold had faded to a washed out hue, "They return her to the earth.. and they let me join her at long last."  
  
A/N- awwwwww. Vote: Do a chapter for Lithil then LE or Le then Lithil? 


	46. Movements

Chapter 46- Movements  
  
"Oh!" The gentle exclamation came from Leyadriel's lips as she laid a hand over her rounded stomach. Never before had the tiny life inside her moved and for a moment, she thought something was terribly, a nameless struck her: Is this supposed to happen?  
  
Then she remembered putting a tiny pearl colored hand to her own mother's stomach and feeling her little sisters kick and move, this was perfectly natural. Heaving a small sigh of relief she pressed her hand to her babe and wanted it to move again, she wanted to appreciate the strength and development that the infant was going through.  
  
Again the sensation came, a flutter of motion beneath the surface of her skin.  
  
"It moved." She smiled proudly before shaking her head in disagreement with herself and whispered again in correction, "He moved. Pen tarenin." {My little prince}  
  
A secret smile lit her face, twas secret because she could tell other people why she smiled but they would never understand her own reasons. Even other mothers who had felt a similar joy would not understand her smile. She lived for this small life inside her now, she survived solely so that her unborn son could one day breathe the air of the world, smell its flowers and roll in it's grass. She wanted the world for him even though he was a bastard conceived in grief, not love.  
  
Leyadriel drew her thought away from the babe's movements and looked in the full length mirror at the velvet dress, a midnight blue color with white lace lining to represent the colors of Gondor. This was to be her wedding gown, in a few weeks time she would be wedded to her child's father, to save her name and save her face.  
  
To run from my past.  
  
She knew in her heart that was the true reason.  
  
Rumors had spread like rapid fire after Legolas and Elaren had disappeared and Leyadriel's stomach had grown. Everyone and their grandchildren remembered the night that the elves had gathered in Gondor and the humans came to watch as an Elven princess was crowned an Elven Queen and an Elven prince proposed to her.  
  
They remembered their princess' joy as she excepted, they remembered the whole scene:  
  
*Flashback* Leyadriel stood and it was a sight to behold, the most beautiful maid that any had ever seen, lifted Legolas' bowed head with two fingers under his chin so that his anxious blue eyes met her's, "I accept your gift, and you, Prince Legolas. I only pray that I am worthy of such an offer."  
  
He stood up from his kneel and took the hand from his chin, kissing it before sliding the ring upon her finger. She stared at it, tears behind her eyes but she held them far better then her mother did for Arwen was crying nearly uncontrollably. Legolas could not stand it, he could not recall when he had last kissed her lips but it was far too long ago and he realized how much he had missed her for the past few days. He brought her lips to his and she melted against him, her legs nearly giving out with pure joy and surprise. He wrapped his arms around her and broke the kiss before either of them got too carried away, elves were comfortable with public displays of affection but that humans were not nearly as much so.  
  
Leyadriel laced her fingers through Legolas', much like her mother had, she pressed a feather light kiss to his lips, just like the one he had given Arwen and Legolas knew that this was his chastisement for his earlier actions. He was happy that this would not propel into a fight with his betrothed. Leyadriel faced her people, years seemed to have been put on her shoulders with the weight of the crown on her brow for now she looked much older, far fairer and wiser then she had been upon walking down the path to receive the burden. Legolas grew more in love with her as she addressed her people for the first time, "As my mother before me, and her mother's mother before her, I shall lead and protect our people for as much or as little time as we walk this Middle Earth, I shall be as my predecessors, all at once Your Queen, Your Protector, and Your Mother. Pass your final days in peace, hini-nin." {My children}  
  
A cheer broke out from the humans and this made the Eldar smile for they knew no noise was needed, all that was needed was a bow to their Queen and future King as they walked down the carpet hand in hand. They glowed like ethereal beings, truly deserving of the titles Lord and Lady of Light.  
  
*Flashback ended*  
  
They already thought her a whore, or thought Legolas a cad. Staring down at the dress and it felt heavy and unflattering.  
  
It felt terribly human: flawed and inelegant.  
  
Twas not nearly beautiful enough, in her eyes, for her wedding. She had imagined her wedding since she was a small child, didn't all girls? She saw herself dressed in silks of whites and pale blues with a bridegroom waiting in silver and blue. She saw herself as glowing with the light of beauty that once radiated from Galadriel.  
  
Looking at her reflection all she saw was a woman with a babe in her belly, a babe she loved despite her hatred for its father, a babe she wished belonged to one that was long gone. When it was born she knew it would have dark features and she wished she would see pointed ears and pale blonde hair upon her babe's head.  
  
Tears filled in her eyes against her will; she wished that Legolas had never left. She wished that he was hear to help her because Eru help her she was frightened. She had never been a mother before and so much could go wrong, especially for her. The curse was still lingering in her mind, would it rob her babe from her? She slept as little as possible recently and she would drink from the elixir that her father had given her when she was about to fall asleep on her feet. She was terrified for her son's life.  
  
Not only her curse, either, she feared it would become his curse. She feared that she would curse her child and a few months ago she had stared fixedly at a foxglove, wondering if it would be better for the child and for her if she simply swallowed the petals. If she simply ended it.  
  
But he was in innocent. He was not guilt of any of his mother's transgressions. Soon he would be able to feel her emotions with her, that followed movement, but feeling her guilt was not the same as accepting the guilt himself. Killing an innocent was of the highest of treasons any living creature can commit, and she would be shunned eternally in this life and the next if she robbed him of the chance of living. She could always give him up but she knew deep in her heart that she wouldn't be able to.  
  
She already loved him, loved him far too much to ever give him to a stranger to raise. She was his mother, half responsible for his creation and she would take care of him. Leyadriel then closed her eyes and envisioned her future with her family. Her little son, Methion she wanted to call him, with his dark locks and dark eyes, perhaps with a very slight point to his ears but he would not be offered immortality, not with a father such as he had. Leyadriel imagined that he would be a sweet child but she knew that if he was his father's son that he would not be so kind. She then thought of Pengwaith. Was it possible for him to be a good father?  
  
The answer hit her harshly. No. He wasn't capable of it.  
  
Why was she here then? With a wedding dress on and a wedding planned to take place in a short time to a man she despised? To a man who would surely harm her child and her if he had the inclination to do so. Suddenly she called a servant to her and told her, "Tell the people of Gondor and all the local Eldar to come for an announcement this evening, an announcement from me."  
  
The woman eyed her suspiciously left and as soon as the door closed Leyadriel ripped the dress off of her body and the cool air nipped at her exposed skin. She crossed the room to a closet, her mother's closet, and took from it a dress that Arwen had often wore while expecting: twas a simple red and black off the shoulder dress.  
  
That evening many people gathered, Leyadriel would not even tell Eldarion what she was planning and he was sitting beside Silmarwen and Galaniel, their third sister was laying in bed with a slight headache, and Pengwaith sat a short distance from them. Eldarion and Silmarwen recognized the dress Leyadriel wore as their mothers, but Galaniel did not as she was the last born and never saw Arwen wear it. Leyadriel was pleased at the turn out and cleared her throat as she opened her arms in a welcoming motion, the elven motion for the beginning of something.  
  
"Diolla lle, thank you all for coming." She began and her voice was like a spell weaving itself around the hearts of every mortal present, there were a few elves there that looked at her as though she was an infectious disease because she had greatly offended the way of the elves by severing her betrothal to Legolas (so they thought) and by having a human's child out of wedlock. Tonight she would explain everything.  
  
"Tonight I intend to explain many things to you that have occurred over the past five months because events that transpired may have been misinterpreted.' She fixedly stared at the present elves as she said this, "Five months ago I was crowned the Queen of the Elves, on that day I accepted a proposal by an elven prince from the kingdom of Mirkwood. Prince Legolas and I had known each other since I was a baby in my father's arms, he and my father had been comrades in arms and dear friends. Towards the end of his life my father blessed our union, and at my coronation my mother blessed it. Prior to this blessing, however, Legolas and I had acted on our love as is the way of the elves. We were greatly in love with each other but the fact of my close relation to two of his dearest friends was at first an obstacle we did not think we could overcome. We shared a bed for a short time before becoming engaged, and in that time I give you my word that no child was conceived. I have been cursed, you see, since my birth with nightmares that cut my flesh and scar my face. This curse would be passed on to all of the blood of Aragorn who were elvish, that is why none of my siblings have this: they are mortal. Legolas and I would have conceived an elven child though and I was loathe to curse a babe, so ne'er did I allow a conception. The night he proposed to me a ghost from my past returned, an old lover who abused me came begging my forgiveness on bended knee. I sent this villain to prison and upon returning to my chambers, my betrothed was gone. He.." Her voice caught in her throat but she paused to compose herself so that she wouldn't cry, after all, Queens did not cry, "He betrayed me. He ran away with my sister, Elaren. I went after them but his own guards shot at me, wounding me and leaving me for dead. I was brought back to Gondor by two horses that pitied me. It is perhaps a very sad thing that those animals showed more mercy towards me then my own kin did, Elaren was the one who commanded me to be shot from the water as I swam after the boat she and Legolas were in." She paused as the fierceness of the memory hit her, "I nearly faded. Elves present will understand what that means, humans present, you will not. I assure you that it is exactly as it sounds. It is worse then death. It is experiencing something so horrible, so scarring that your mind can't move on from it, your body and will and soul become caged in this grief and that is all that you know, that blackness and void, that suffering until finally you pray for death and wish for it because it will be merciful. That is fading. That is slowly detaching from a world that has turned its back on you. That is what nearly happened to me. It occurred because I loved Legolas, so fiercely and purely that my heart, as elven hearts do, will never love that way again. Elves love but once, and a broken heart can kill them. But I survived. Why is still a mystery to me, but I survived. My brother woke me up from a slumber that could have been eternal. After that I took time pitying myself, mourning my loss. I was singing a song for lost love one night when I heard it in the distance being sung. I followed the voice and it led me to a prisoner that had been singing it for months on end. A prisoner that I had sent there myself, for hurting me long ago. A prisoner I released. A prisoner I thought had reformed and in a moment of weakness, a moment of need I took him to bed thinking it would cure me of my broken heart. But that is a disease for which there is no cure. And that act physically pained me more then I can describe. And that pain conceived a child. The prisoner had not reformed, and still 'loved' me for my crown alone. His bastard son in my belly, I was confused and demanded he wed me. Demanded my father's name be saved. But this evening my son moved for the first time, inside my womb this small life is moving, alive and vibrant, and I will not bring him into the home of a man who used to beat me. I know that when my betrothed disappeared along with my sister, when I quickly became engaged to another and was bearing a child, rumors spread like wild fire and I am hear to turn them to ash. The child is not Legolas' it belongs to a bastard that does not deserve a name. However, the child is mine and I love it. That I shall admit, it is mine, the fruit of my greatest mistake and I love is nonetheless. I will now publicly break my engagement to him. I will carry this burden and birth this burden," and her look as she said the next part was of pure motherly protection, "and I will love it as though it were Legolas', like he never betrayed me, and I will no longer tolerate lies being spread about this babe nor I. Please, understand my decision is to protect my baby, that is the least any mother could do."  
  
She bowed her head and crossed her arms over her breasts and the silence was thick in her ears. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the group of elves that had thought ill of her get down on one knee and put a fist of loyalty over their hearts. She placed her own hand over her heart and extended it to them. The mortals then began to applaud her, not all but most. There were some that still thought her a whore but they would at least stay silent. Eldarion and her sisters stood as they clapped but Pengwaith stood, his face red with rage and walked pompously towards his room. She smiled and bowed her head and walked  
  
What she had just done was terribly risky, but she felt remarkably..safer. Pengwaith would watch his step now, now he was living out of his cell by Leyadriel's wash alone and he knew that. The moment she became overly displeased with him she would see him locked in his cell for the rest of his natural life.  
  
"Well done, pen neth." {Little one} A voice behind her was warm with agreement and pride. She turned to find her two uncles there and she launched herself into their embrace, "Uncles! This is a most welcome surprise!"  
  
That's when Eldarion, Silmarwen and Galaniel saw their uncles; it was a small family reunion. For hours they talked laughed and patted Leyadriel's stomach. Soon she was tired from the day and Leyadriel fell down on her bed and fell instantly asleep, neglecting to take any of the sleep stopping elixir. This Leyadriel did not realize until she saw herself surrounded by a group of Uruk- Hai. Just as she was about to scream, a bright light and heard a voice chanting something on the wind.  
  
Then there was a circle of flowers surrounding Leyadriel and was still laying down and she picked up her head but then a pale hand came and brought her head back down, it landed softly on the thighs of her mother. And Arwen was stroking her hair, "You must be more careful, pen neth, they will take your son from you and I can not be here for you for long."  
  
"Like father?"  
  
"Yes little one like your father."  
  
"Then just stay for a little."  
  
"I am."  
  
And for the rest of the night that is how they stayed, with Arwen stroking her daughters hair and it was the calmest that Leyadriel had been in ages.  
  
When she woke she had one thought in her mind: How deeply it moved her just how much this unborn ball of life could affect her.  
  
A/N- hey honies! Long time no chapter, I know I'm sorry. For some reason the creative juices weren't flowing but then I sat down and I couldn't stop typing. I thought the scene with Arwen was cute. And the name for the boy. Who's proud of our girl for finally standing up for herself? I am! Yay Le! Woohoo. Just a topic of discussion, does anyone else notice (like my friend Bruccy) that I tend to name my characters with L's? Funny huh? 


	47. Pity is a Virtue

Chapter 47- Pity is a Virtue  
  
As he paced around his room, Legolas grew impatient with the sea that slapped the side of the boat. He became restless with the snail's pace the ship was moving at. All he knew for sure was that somewhere Leyadriel was without him and he could not bear that. Whether she was alive or dead they were not together and the mere thought was killing him. Thranduil had told him all that he could; he would get no more information from his father. There was one person left who could answer his questions.the one that planned this all.  
  
He gave her credit for her cleverness, he wouldn't have guessed that she could scheme up a plot as intricate as this but low and behold she had.  
  
With an animal's growl coming from his throat he went into her room, nearly breaking the door with his need to hear more, his need to try and understand everything. He knew that five months had passed, five months that no one who was on this ship could help him understand. Leyadriel could have been alive five months ago and since fell into the sleep of those fading from this world. Though he could feel some of her pain the fact that they were not bound meant that he could not feel everything. She could be hurt, sad, depressed beyond reason and he would not be there to hold her and lighten her burden. She was a Queen now and mere hours after their engagement, her King had abandoned her. He could only imagine how horrid the rumors were that would be flying around, how little respect would be left for his name when he returned. Elves would think terribly low of him. Humans would think even lower of him.  
  
He cringed to think of how Elladan and Elrohir would greet him; they had always been overprotective of their sister and would surely be so to their niece. They would surely threaten his elfhood, they would probably throttle him within an inch of his life. Especially if the worst had happened..if she was fading. Or had faded.  
  
Not that Legolas would care if that was the case; if she was dead or dying they may hurt him all they wished and he would bear it all for it was what he deserved. He had known that last night that Elaren had meant ill for her sister and he but they had gone back to Leyadriel's room regardless, gone right to where Elaren knew them to be. They should've gone to a different room, he shouldn't have slept but stayed awake with her all night. He should have walked the grounds with her or stayed by people. Elaren could not attack them in a group.  
  
Why had he been so foolish? Why had he assumed that a young mortal as she was could not do any harm to the royalty of the ancient Eldar? Why had the always thought her threats so empty? Her hatred so hollow? Why had he thought her so simple minded, so childish?  
  
It was he who was the child, he thought dismally.  
  
His self loathing and his rage coupled atrociously and he looked for Elaren everywhere, to demand answers from her, to make her tell him everything she knew. But she was no where to be found.  
  
There were dresses in the room, and mirrors. And, oddly, a book.  
  
Elaren never seemed like one for leisure reading nor writing and this book seemed to out of place that he picked it up and opened it to the first page.  
  
It was her journal.  
  
His sister had kept one, and his mother. Leyadriel had mentioned one, it apparently was a comfort to the female mind to know that all her worldly secrets and feelings could be found, deciphered and exploited.  
  
Which is exactly what he intended to do with Elaren's journal, cruel though it may be.  
  
Elaren's Journal: (random entries sorted by age)  
  
Age 4:  
  
Leyadriel read me a story today, it was the best story I ever heard. A fairy princess with long blonde hair and bright blue eyes lived with her mommy and daddy and she had sisters and a brother and a pony and everyone loved her. I asked if she was an elf but Leyadriel said she was mortal just like me! She sounded so beautiful. One day she was walking through the forest and she met a handsome prince. He was tall and rode on a pretty gray horse. They fell in love and lived happily ever after.  
  
It sounded like a dream come true. I wanted to be that princess and Leyadriel said I was better then her because I was real and one day I would fall in love and be happily ever after too!  
  
Age7:  
  
I saw Prince Legolas today, he's daddy's friend. I saw him riding horses with Leyadriel today, and I was sad because I didn't have my own pony. Leyadriel asked if I wanted to ride on her pony with her but I said I was afraid the pony would throw me off. Legolas smiled at me and lifted me onto his horse and said he wouldn't let me fall. I smiled and laughed as he made the horse jump and run and it was the most fun in the world.  
  
Eldarion said we needed to wash for dinner but I didn't want to stop! It was so wonderful! When we were going to our wash room Leyadriel whispered that Legolas and I looked like the fairy tale couple from the story I loved.  
  
Age 12:  
  
Today was awful. I bled today, for the first time. Mother says every woman does, even elves like she and Leyadriel. Even like Grandma Galadriel. Momma said that I shouldn't be afraid of it but when I woke up with all that blood, I was so afraid. I thought I was dying and I started screaming and when momma first saw me she thought that I had turned into Leyadriel. She thought I started having dreams and she was so relieved when it was just my "routine". Leyadriel played with my hair and said I was a woman now. I don't particularly like being a woman. My stomach hurts so badly that it feels like I'm being stabbed. I feel really sad one minute and really angry the next and little things set me off. I'm so sad, I don't know why. I've also got spots on my face, they're repulsive. I look like Silmarwen (she has the pox) and they are red and big and they're even on my chest.  
  
I'm getting breasts. But they kind of hurt too. They're odd, not very comfortable. Every time I try to lie on my stomach to sleep they get in the way. I'm getting hips too. Momma and Le-le say that it's natural to get them, that it means I'm growing up. Le said I'm a little young but momma said it was perfectly natural. Hips aren't that bad but they make all my clothes type down there. And my breasts make my clothes stretch across my chest. And the spots show on all my clothes.  
  
A girl made fun of me today at lunch too. She said I was ugly and that she didn't understand how Arwen Evenstar was my mother. She said even though Leyadriel was scarred she was beautiful. She asked if I was adopted. On top of that when I stood up from my seat there was a big stain of blood on my backside and she laughed hysterically at me. "Can't even take care of yourself? Soft little princess, your servants even have to control nature for you!" I ran away from her and cried. I cried and cried and scratched at the spots until they bled. I was so sad and so angry and I felt so fat. I ripped the dress I was wearing and tried to wipe all the blood away but it kept coming. It smeared all over my legs and it smelled horrible. Sometimes it was dark and clumpy and I didn't understand why. Momma had said something about when you bled you weren't going to have a baby. Was this what a baby was supposed to be? And it was bleeding out of me? I'm so confused. I hate the blood. I hate the girl. I hate the dress. I hate the spots. I hate myself. I hate my life.  
  
I wanted my mother to hug me and tell me everything would be alright and that the girl was just jealous of me because I was a princess. I wanted momma to tell me it wasn't true. I wasn't that ugly. I wasn't adopted. But when I went to her she shooed me away. "Your sister has had another dream, go to your room and I'll be there soon."  
  
"But momma!"  
  
"Sii'!" {now!}  
  
I really wish I was Leyadriel. Then momma would fuss over me whenever I fell asleep. Then people would think I was beautiful and they wouldn't make fun of my spots because if I was Leyadriel I wouldn't have any. They wouldn't make fun of my blood because you don't make fun of elves. They are better then humans. I wouldn't be fat because elves never get fat. That girl would sooner kiss my feet then laugh at me. If I was Leyadriel, I would have a scar and momma and daddy would have to coddle me every night so I didn't get another one.  
  
I've made up my mind: I'm going to be the fairy princess. I'm going to be beautiful and loved and I'm going to fall in love with and marry a fairy prince. Or maybe I'll just become an elf; after all I'm already a princess. And there's elf in my family. Maybe someone cut my ears when I was a baby.  
  
Age 15:  
  
There is nothing on this earth more handsome then the prince. I never noticed how perfect he was. Then again, all the boys in court are so plain and flawed...so mortal that of course seeing the prince in the new light of a woman with perfectly developed breasts and hips and a perfect complexion (the spots finally went away!) I would see sheer perfection.  
  
My heart skipped a beat when I saw him.  
  
I think my fairy tale might end in happily ever after after all!  
  
Age 16:  
  
Everybody that steps into this household spends all their time oogling my sister. Legolas was hear again with Leyadriel. I though he and I were an item. After what happened in Ithilien! That's what men enjoy, the girls in the halls like to gossip. They tell me all about their suitors and their husbands and what they do. Legolas sounded as if he enjoyed it. Eru knows I did. I was nervous.  
  
I was scared out of my mind. I had never done anything like that before. I had never even seen one of.one of those things before. I just trusted my instincts. Men like a forward woman. He'll love me, I know he will! I shower attention on him, I do what he wants! Most girls won't do that! Leyadriel won't! Except to Pengwaith.  
  
Damn elf. He thinks I don't see him looking at her when her back's turned the other way. I see him staring at her. I see that look in his eyes! Every time I look into his eyes I see her staring back at me!  
  
Why! She was always the pretty one, always the smart one, always the one everyone talked about. Leyadriel this and Leyadriel that. Everyone! It's nauseating! I could slit my wrists in front of my parents' thrones and they would tell me not to get any blood on Leyadriel's dress! It's not fair! Every time I ever had a nightmare, every time I woke up shivering in the middle of the night and wanted my mother, every time I wanted my daddy to fight the monsters out from under my bed they were with Leyadriel! Leyadriel! Leyadriel! Leyadriel!  
  
She already has a lover! Why does she insist on having two! Its because she knows I love him! She knows I haven't let another boy touch me because I'm saving myself for him! She knows I want Legolas like I wanted beauty! She took beauty from me and insists that I'm human! She wants to be the only elf in the family! And she wants to take my prince away from me!  
  
I couldn't bear loosing to her again.  
  
A week ago: (as in new entry not the last entry continued) *Legolas could hardly read the paper, so saturated was it with tears*  
  
He doesn't love me. He doesn't love me. What did I do? What didn't I do? I don't understand! I don't understand! It was real! It was so real! I could touch it and taste it.. It hurt. It was my first time and it hurt. But I knew that he would never truly hurt me, he would never meaningfully harm me. I thought he loved me.  
  
He hit me! He hit me! Dear Eru he hurt me! His eyes..Eru those eyes I loved so much! So blue! So deep! They were near red with his rage. I thought he was going to kill me.  
  
I screamed at him, She's dead! She's dead.  
  
I hope she is. She should be. Fragile little Leyadriel, broke everyone's heart, she deserved to have her's broken! She should have seen father's anguish when she left! Her mother's sobs! Should have seen the emptiness in their eyes as he lay dying, thinking that she hated him, thinking that they failed. I know my words were empty to him. I know that. But to say good bye is to admit good bye. My daddy never forgot me! My daddy loved me! But even he turned against me! Even he said I was being mean to Leyadriel! I wasn't! But telling her she's right is admitting I'm wrong! I may not be elvish, but it is such a sting to be that fat, flawed twelve year old with blood stains on her dress. Mortality is so .. ugly. I wanted to be beautiful. I wanted to be an elf and she has to yell at me and take that away! I want to seduce Legolas! To court him! What does she do? She comes home and gets engaged to him! Her whole life is one big show of stealing my dreams one after another!  
  
Dammit she stole my family! Now..now she's taken my hope. I have no more dreams. No more hope. I hope...I hope I die with less pain then I lived with.  
  
**  
  
Legolas saw the bottom of this page stained with blood. Fresh dark red blood.  
  
"What have you done?" He whispered.  
  
A moan came from under a pile of blankets, so weak and quiet that he almost hadn't heard it.  
  
Upon throwing the thick masses aside he saw Elaren, pale as snow with angry red gashes across her wrists. The first thought in his mind was death to the one who had destroyed his life. But then a greater feeling quieted the first. Pity. He pitied her greatly. Her verses had been so heartfelt, so sincere. She had felt so utterly abandoned, so secondary to her sister her whole life and he could understand that. He had three older siblings and always felt that their achievements or problems outweighed his own. But he knew that was not true. Elaren did not.  
  
Even if her actions deserved death and nothing less, he could not allow her to take her own life. There was only one person living in this world with the right to kill Elaren Telcontar...her sister Leyadriel. But also, he could not let her die, he pitied her. Her pain and misery were touching to even he, who hated her with a passion the inverse of that he felt for her kin.  
  
All this Galadriel perceived from her mirror in Valinor and smiled as the prince bound Elaren's wounds and sought a healer to stitch them, she smiled as her great-granddaughter slowly recovered over the next week. As a reward for his good act towards a bitter enemy, Galadriel made the wind for Valinor stronger; if the ship arrived quicker it could leave quicker, but still much time lay ahead of the prince before he could see his beloved again.  
  
He would need the virtue of patience but Galadriel did not think he would have trouble developing it.  
  
He already had the greatest virtue: pity.  
  
A/N- I hope every single reader holds some sort of pity for Elaren! We should all feel bad for her! Like the kind of pity when you watch Girl, Interrupted or A Beautiful Mind. Remember: she created a lie so that she could hide in it, she created a perfect world because she needed to escape in order to survive. And every word she wrote about herself is true, she was being a snot to everyone for the sake of being a snot, she was hiding how she truly felt by acting the exact opposite.  
  
2 chapters in 2 days, damn I'm good. 


	48. Closer And Further Away

A/N- I know I know, I haven't updated in like a bajillion years. *slaps wrist* Bad author! Bad Author! Okay, I began work on this new chapter shortly after finishing Lithil's new chapter. We really are winding down ladies and gentlemen  
  
Is anyone still reading? I used to get like a hundred reviews everytime I updated now I get maybe 2. Its disheartening, makes me feel like no one's reading.  
  
But I'm still writing for the one or two of you that are! Its short but sweet  
  
Chapter 48- Closer and Yet Farther Away  
  
Galadriel looked to the horizon, her eyes unblinking and her lips muttering a prayer for the winds to quicken the passage to Valinor for the Greenleafs' ship. For three weeks she had stood unmoving, willing the ship to travel faster, willing the waters to help speed its journey. Her whole heart and soul were fixed on this noble ambition, every nuance of her strength was being put into this endeavor hoping almost beyond hope that she would accomplish her task and allow the Prince to return to Middle Earth with haste.... with time.  
  
Celeborn watched his wife carefully, he was worried for her. She had not eaten nor drunk nor moved in three complete weeks and even the strength of the Eldar had limits. He knew Galadriel could hold longer, he knew she was probably not even feeling the strain on her body because she was so intent on her mission but nonetheless he worried. That was his duty, it had been for so many millennia now. She was the powerful one, she was the wise one, she was the Famous Lady of the Light but she was also his wife and as such he loved her and worried for her every minute of every day. He sighed, she wouldn't leave her post until either the mirror or the horizon gave her a reason to; Celeborn glanced in the mirror and saw his great-granddaughter rubbing her ever growing belly with a contented smile on her face. She was cooing the child's name, "Methion, pentarennin, Methion." (My little prince)  
  
A smile stole across the Lord's face, Galadriel had cooed to Celebrain, cooed the child's name over and over and sang to her stomach; Celebrain had told her twin sons stories of fierce warriors and painted pictures of what she thought they might look like and for her Evenstar she made garment and jewelry tailored for her daughter long before the girl's birth; for every child Arwen carried she sang and massaged her stomach and sewed tiny clothes and blankets for the child, she would tell it everything she saw and Celeborn knew that Leyadriel would be much the same. It was something good happening, something that was countering all the dark that had surrounded his kin of late.  
  
Behind him footsteps came and he turned and bowed his head, "Elrond, Mithrandir, ielnin." (my daughter)  
  
Gandalf looked much as he had with a large nose and white robes that had managed to already collect dust and rips and held the distinct stink of Hobbit pipe- weed. Elrond looked remarkably younger, seeing his wife had taken away the heavy burden of grief and lightened his heart again. As for Celebrain, she wore some scars from her ordeal all those thousands of years ago, some scars that could be seen and others that couldn't be and never would go away but she still looked, in Celeborn's eyes, like the most beautiful maiden in all Varda and beyond. To him she was perfect. Galadriel he knew to have flaws, which was one of her more attractive qualities, Arwen too was beautiful but she did favor her father and even Leyadriel held the grace and visage of her mother and the legendary Luthien. But his daughter, his firstborn and only child, would always be the most perfect creature in all the worlds to him. She would be the one perfect thing he was responsible for. His Wood had burned during the War, his rule had ended, his wife had left him for Valinor which had made him feel rejected and ugly for the longest time. SO much of his life had gone wrong, except his daughter. From the moment she was conceived he had never let her out of his sight until he could hold his infant daughter in his arms. She was so small and delicate, so fragile and beautiful with a patch of silver blonde hair and the brightest blue eyes he had ever seen, that nothing had ever looked so marvelous in his eyes.  
  
He cleared his throat and shook his head, bringing his mind back to the present and teasing himself for being a wistful old fool, every time he saw his little girl he got lost in memories, "Mani lye merne?" (What do you (plural) want?)  
  
"To ask about my granddaughter." Elrond answered and then peered beyond Celeborn to Galadriel and asked, "Her vision has not changed?"  
  
Celeborn shook his head, "Sadly no."  
  
Celebrain looked into the mirror, "She favors Arwen."  
  
Celeborn stepped aside so his daughter could better see the image of Leyadriel, she had never seen her in life and rarely did the mirror hold an image of her long enough for Celebrain to see it. The maiden stepped to the edge of the mirror and gazed at the image of the younger maid picking flowers and making a crown from them as she sang to her unborn babe and a melancholy look came over her, "I had so hoped that mother's vision had changed."  
  
Elrond put a hand on his wife's shoulder and drew her back from the mirror, catching her in his arms and holding her for a prolonged moment.  
  
Gandalf had seen little of Leyadriel in life, he had glanced at her when she was young but she never noticed him. She was always running in and out of the palace and playing with her sisters or some visiting dignitary she brought out the child in and scarcely paid attention to the wizened wizard that watched her. He had sensed an ill fate for her then, he had assumed it was the curse that hung heavy on her blood but now... now he wondered if it had been a greater ill.  
  
"What do you make of the vision, Mithrandir?" Celeborn asked, recognizing the wheels turning in Gandalf's mind and drawing the Istari into the conversation.  
  
"I can't be sure." The wizard glanced keenly at Galadriel who didn't return his gaze, her eyes still set on the horizon waiting to see the sails of a great grey ship, "I trust the Lady, as we all do, but she is neither the only one with the gift of foresight nor are her visions necessarily true. She warned Frodo of this long ago when he looked into the mirror, that what is shown of the future is what *may* come to pass, not what will. But I have sensed something dark, a storm cloud on the horizon and it moves with the pace of a chess piece, slow but deliberate and it moves toward Gondor. I pray for peace to come to that city at last, and for its inhabitants. Sometimes I fear that there is a secret plague upon the city, a disease we cannot see that exists solely to take the lives of the Eldar that walk the city streets and to drag them into a mortal hell. Most of the elves that stayed there before the attack of the Last Alliance litter the Dead Marshes and other things I daren't mention." He feared to mention that Elrond and Arwen had spoken their bitter farewell in Gondor's streets and when Galadriel last walked there she left for Valinor without her mate, causing the nearest to the separation of an elven marriage to date.  
  
"What of my granddaughter, Mithrandir, what do you think for her?" Celebrain asked.  
  
Gandalf sighed but then gave a disheartened 'humf' as he too looked to the horizon, leaning heavily on his walking stick, "It seems to me that Leyadriel and Legolas will suffer much the same ironic fate: they will be taken further away from the thing they desire most in order to be brought closer to it."  
  
"You still speak in riddles, Gandalf." Spoke a voice that was scratched a bit with age but still held a playful if not tired lilt to it and a much aged Frodo Baggins crept out from a bush he had been eavesdropping in and from not 2 feet behind him came Samwise Gamgee, plumper and balder with liver spots on the crown of his head and laugh lines slowly taking the place of frown lines, and chirped, "Please tell, Mr. Gandalf, sir."  
  
Though Celeborn and his daughter looked slightly annoyed at the intrusion, Gandalf and Elrond had a hint of amusement always reserved for the Hobbits. Elrond looked over each of his shoulders, "I half expected to see your two friends pop out."  
  
Sam and Frodo sadly nodded and bowed their heads, Frodo muttered, "Rest their souls, dear Merry and Pippin."  
  
Gandalf motioned to the Mirror with his staff, "Have an interest in our conversation, do you?"  
  
"It's intriguing, I only ever heard tales of Aragorn's daughter from you and the others from when she was young and now she's all grown.. And in trouble. I want to know if you think she'll be alright Gandalf, I'm too old to be trying to decipher your riddles when its nearly time for afternoon tea." Frodo did an amazing impression of Bilbo as he tapped his foot a bit impatiently, expecting the wizard to give in as he knew he would.  
  
Gandalf smiled and looked to Sam, "And you as well, Master Gamgee?"  
  
Sam gave a shy smile, "She reminds me of my girls, she does. My Elanor and my Goldilocks and.... please Mr. Gandalf, tell me what you meant."  
  
"What I meant was that both Legolas and Leyadriel are going further and further from the one thing they want but they unknowing come closer and closer to it at the same time."  
  
The puzzled expression on Sam's face was all Gandalf needed to say, "Legolas wants to return to her but he must first come all the way here before leaving for Middle Earth while she on the other hand wants a loving family but is carrying the bastard child of the man she hates more then life itself thinking the one person whom she loved rejected and abandoned her. She can't turn to her siblings nor her uncles, they can't understand. No one spare Legolas and the babe can, and she only has one of the two. And truth be told I don't think she'll even have that much longer."  
  
Suddenly Galadriel gave a cry and they all turned as she broke out in a relieved smile, "I see them! I see the sails drawing nearer and nearer!"  
  
For the first time in three weeks she stepped away from her post and nearly fell into her husband's arms but looked to the mirror's image as she whispered, "He will come soon."  
  
A/N- Maybe its not tooo short. Whatcha think? KEEP ALL CHANELS OF YOUR MIND OPEN. ***I really want to know what everyone thinks please please please please please review*** What about Frodo and Sam? Where they too much? Or was it ok?  
  
COMING SOON::: LEGOLAS' RETURN TO MIDDLE EARTH 


	49. The Mirror

A/N- RETURN OF THE KING WAS THE MOST EXCELLETN MOVE IN THE ENTIRETY OF THE WORLD!!!!!!!!!! Legolas wasn't too bad either! ( Of course I nearly fainted with pleasure when he's all in that sexy blue tunic, god I love the blue tunic. And the crown! I loves me some men with a crown. Okay I've been working on the new chapter just in time for Christmas! Kinda (  
  
Merry Christmas! Happy Holidays of various religions! And Blessed Yule!  
  
Chapter 49- The Mirror  
  
As soon as Valinor's earth first touched the bow of the ship Legolas leapt to the ground, eager to make the stop so that he could turn around. He surveyed the land around him, many people were gathered and the first that he saw was Gandalf, whom he ran to and embraced.  
  
"Mithrandir! Mithrandir!" Gandalf had been there for Legolas through a large portion of his youth, when Thranduil had been too drunk to care for his youngest son. As the Istari and elf embraced Legolas shook his head and chuckled lightly and when Gandalf inquired about this Legolas replied, "Ever have I defended you from those who say you are an ill omen but now that I see again it comes at both the darkest and brightest hour of my life thus far."  
  
"What do you mean?" Mithrandir asked out of politeness, he already knew the answer and Legolas was no fool.  
  
"You probably know as well of better then I do, Gandalf. I have been taken away from my love and now that I am the farthest away from her that I can be I come one step nearer to being by her side again. It is simply ironic that when I bare such ill tidings that I see you again."  
  
The wizard nodded and wrapped an arm around Legolas' shoulders leading him towards a circling of elves. The elves bowed their heads towards Legolas and his family behind him. Lord Elrond was standing next to a pretty blonde maiden who bore a strong resemblance to Celeborn and was holding her hand; this was obviously his long lost wife who had sailed for Valinor when Legolas was only a few hundred years old. Galadriel and Celeborn were present, looking more radiant then ever extended their arms to the prince and the Lady's voice danced in the air, "Tula, Taren."  
  
Legolas obeyed and embraced the Lady, she was so far above him in position that he was amazed at the familiarity her actions suggested, they scarcely had met a handful of times and she seemed to realize his thoughts.  
  
"Legolas Greenleaf, you hold in your palm the heart of my great- granddaughter. You are as much my family now as she; may I not embrace you as a great-grandmother does her children?" If Legolas was surprised at this, the elves of Valinor were run through were shock and then at once delight.  
  
Word had spread to the Elves of the Undying Lands, of the Evenstar's fateful choice and of her children whom Elrond had brought word of. He spoke of Leyadriel fondly, and they well knew that the youngest Princess of Celeborn's line had been given charge of the last of her people. They had never heard of a marriage nor bind nor interest of any sort until now and they rejoiced. A good number of these elves had sailed here from Middle Earth and were aware of who the prince was and were joyful that he had found a mate.  
  
Legolas' shock was not joyful right now and he bowed to the Lady respectfully and formally, "My Lady, I bear ill news of one of your great- granddaughters."  
  
The Lady knew of what he spoke but she feigned ignorance, "And which would that be?"  
  
The Lady's spell of conscious forgetfulness was caused by the need to punish the daughter that Legolas had with him, Elaren had caused many problems that she was not capable of sorting out. It seldom bothers people when someone destroys their own path but Elaren saw the need to destroy other people's and this Galadriel would not forgive lightly. She did pity the girl; she had seen farther into Elaren's mind and felt in her own heart the confusion and depression that racked Elaren so forcefully. Elaren was loud because when things were quiet her insecurities spoke to her, whispered in her ear and made her cry, made her wish to end her existence. The girl was ill, ill in a way not even the elves could cure and Galadriel lamented that she could do nothing to save her, physical pain the Elves could harm but mental pain can only be solved by the patient.  
  
Legolas spoke carefully so as not to tarnish the name of Telcontar, which he and many others present greatly respected as that of their Evenstar, "Elaren Telcontar has harmed herself. She tried to take her life shortly after falling into despair. My crew and I did all we could to mend her wounds but I am no healer and so I have brought her to you and present her for your care and inspection."  
  
He motioned to two guards who promptly began escorting a figure covered in a worn green cloak, the skin of the hands that were exposed was deathly pale, from loss of blood, and there were the beginnings of longs scars starting at the ends of her wrist, the rest of her arms were covered but Legolas knew those scars traveled up her arms in a ragged fashion. Galadriel did love her kinswoman and she petted the girls head and kissed her cheek, "Pennethnin, here you shall heal, we shall not suffer your body nor your mind to be troubled here in the purest of lands." (My little one)  
  
Elves applauded the Lady's words and decision but few heard her whisper, "But the scars themselves will remain, may you now see Leyadriel's troubles. Her past is forever engraved on her very flesh as is yours now. I know that you will be able to look past the markings, that is one strength of yours Elaren: you are very good at looking past the scar and you see only what it hides. I give you that, penedannin, you are very good at seeing past the front of things." (My little human)  
  
Elaren bowed her head at her grandmother and whispered, "It seems that I saw things behind some scars that weren't there."  
  
Galadriel looked deep into Elaren's eyes and saw in them years of believing that Legolas fancied her, that Leyadriel had wanted to take him away from her, that Leyadriel was arrogant because she was the elvish daughter and desired to taunt Elaren because she was mortal. The Lady of the Light knew both of the pains and burdens of her great grandchildren but she had only glimpsed their depths and to clarify her vision of the ocean of Elaren's thoughts, Galadriel extended her hand to the girl and led her away from prying eyes...led her to the mirror.  
  
Meanwhile Legolas stood before Mithrandir as his father and brothers got off of the ship. He saw his siblings make a step towards him but Thranduil put a hand on their shoulders and shook his head, he had not been much of a father to Legolas but he still knew that at this point Legolas was bitter towards them and needed time alone. They had eternity to make amends, so Thranduil hoped.  
  
A flicker of blonde came to the corner of Legolas and he heard his name be called out and he turned just in time to catch his sister in his arms and twirl her around, "Salethine! My sister! Oh how I have missed you!"  
  
"And I you, my little brother!" Salethine looked like Legolas very much but her hair was longer and there were more years behind her gaze then behind his, "I must say that I did not expect to see you so soon! I Expected you to be the last member of the last ship! But how happy I am that you weren't! Seeing you again lightens my heart!"  
  
Legolas' joy shaded over for a moment, "I meant to be on the last ship, sister, I won't deny that."  
  
Her smile was replaced by a pensive frown, "Then why aren't you? There are still many elves on Middle Earth."  
  
"I shall tell you later, Salethine, go see your father and brothers, they have missed you as well."  
  
***Elaren and Galadriel at the same time***  
  
Elaren was suspicious of her great grandmother, the Lady had taken her away from public eyes and was leading her to a high cliff which was barren save for a mirror on a stand.  
  
Galadriel stood beside the mirror and watched as the breeze made the surface of the water ripple, "This mirror shows more then just reflections. It can show the past, the present and even what may happen. I want you to look into it, Elaren, and I want you to well observe what you see."  
  
And so Elaren came towards the edge of the mirror, she had heard tales of Galadriel's mirror from Gimli and Arwen but never thought it true....never until now.  
  
The initial image she saw was her own reflection but then the water rippled, rippled beyond what a breeze could do to it and the depths of it glittered and shined...then darkened.  
  
She saw rain, a stormy night with angry clouds giving way to a sunrise that promised a fresh start. Voices were yelling and at first they were thick and she couldn't decipher their words, but they became clearer,  
  
"Leyadriel! Behind you! Beware! Behind you! *Behind you!!*"  
  
It was a man's voice, deep but frightened and desperate as though he were far away from her and she were in great peril and he could not reach her in time to save her. The voice was familiar but she could not think who's it was.  
  
"I'm so cold..so very cold. It's so warm when I shut my eyes, seas let me go." (please) Elaren recognized her sister's voice and heard Legoals voice respond as hard stone that would not yield to her decision, "I will not lose you again, if you go I go, meleth." (love)  
  
Elaren's mind spun with the images that flared behind her eyes and the voices that screamed within her head, she had little mental strength with which to control what she saw in the mirror.  
  
Galadriel sent her grandchild to the Healers but stayed in deep contemplation next to her mirror until Celeborn found her.  
  
"Mani naa ta, Galadriel?" That look on her face seldom meant good things and Celeborn well knew it, she had worn that look when her damned mirror had shown her that Celebrain would be attacked and they couldn't help her, when she saw that the Shire's innocent Halflings would be twisted by Saruman's foul will, when she saw that Leyadriel was pregnant with a child that love had not conceived.  
  
"Elaren will return with Legolas to Middle Earth." Her eyes stared ahead unblinking, "There she and her sister will reunite... I will loose one of my grandchildren that day."  
  
"Which?" But he knew the answer before it fell from her lips.  
  
"That much the mirror cannot tell."  
  
A/N- Ok so it's a little belated for Christmas, was it ok?? I hope so. Did I say his sister's name before? I couldn't find it but the files are all jumbled. R/R PLEASE! AND VOTE FOR ME ON THE FANFICTION AWARDS! UNDER BEST ORIGINAL CHARACTER! (Leyadriel!!) And I also have a 2 chapter Todd Blackburn (Orlando) (Black Hawk Down) fic that's really cute even if your not partial to the characters. It's sweet and only has 1 review so please R/R that one!!!!  
  
SOON TO COME::: The RETURN TO MIDDLE EARTH 


	50. Worries

Chapter 50- Worries  
  
Eldarion couldn't sleep, too many things plagued his mind, the least prevalent was not the girl in his arms, her head smuggled into the crook of his neck deep in dreams. Naeva was always on his mind, he couldn't go through a day without thinking about her or seeing her.  
  
Or ambushing her in a dark corner and all but ripping her clothes off.  
  
He was the King of Men, the heir of Telcontar, Elessar's son, but he was a slave to his love for this servant girl. Eldarion glanced to his bureau and his eyes glazed over, inside was a white and silver crown with wings designs etched into the circlet's smooth surface. On his finger was his father's ring. The ring given to Eldarion's mother when Aragorn proposed to her. The ring that Eldarion desperately wanted to give Naeva.  
  
He wasn't getting younger, he needed a wife, an heir, he *wanted* Naeva and any child she'd bear him.  
  
Under normal circumstances he probably would be planning his wedding at this moment but he'd scarcely had time to dream about his beloved before he had to help his sister again.  
  
Leyadriel had never been an easy younger sister to have, constantly throughout her childhood she was awoken drenched in her own blood and all the attention that had been given to her siblings was immediately transferred to her. Even when Eldarion was sick, Leyadriel's wounds took priority. And she was always arrogant, not enough so to be poor company but it was the air of the Eldar that clung to her. She was elvish, and she'd always known that without being conscious of it. That was something Eldarion had always noticed about his elvish kin, they walked with their noses raised, their heads higher then perhaps they should be.  
  
He loved his sister dearly, and he always forgave her snobbery when he had suffered it, and he understood that she was tormented by her curse, that it was crucial to heal her wounds right away.  
  
But even so, Leyadriel was becoming a nuisance to her brother. She lived in his palace, making Minas Tirith double as the Gondorian and Elvish capitals. The elves that had moved here to stay near their queen were not having a positive effect on the Gondorian economy, all the mortals strove to buy their products but the elves seldom returned the favor. Therefore a lot of Gondorian currency went to the elves, but they didn't give any back, preferring to trade it with the Dwarves or their elvish kindred in Ithilien.  
  
And this was his home. Not that it wasn't also his sister's but this was where he was supposed to raise his family, to marry and care for his children. Leyadriel's current condition made him realize more and more acutely that there was not enough room for her family and his to share the palace. He did not want to evict his little sister, especially after all the trauma of her recent days but he could not abide her to stay forever.  
  
Also, her decisions had been taxing his patience and reserve of late. First she flees after Legolas when he left her, returning half dead in body and mind. Her recklessness nearly killed her, nearly stole his sister from him so soon after loosing both of his parents...he wouldn't have been able to cope with her loss, he knew. After that, she frees Lord Pengwaith from his cell, claiming him a changed man, claiming that he'd not hurt her again.  
  
Eldarion had not trusted Pengwaith since he was been a small child holding Leyadriel's hand at formal dinners and bringing her flowers and then throwing a royal fit when she didn't agree with everything he said. His abuse of her was one thing and he hated the man for it, but he hated his sister more for defending her lover's actions. So much more.  
  
And after she had finally put him in his proper place, awaiting trial in a small barred enclosure, her heart softens to him yet again and she releases him, accepts him. Accepted him far too well, and now she bore the consequences.  
  
Even he, just a mortal looking in at elvish life, knew that elvish hearts claimed but one other, that to refuse that claim could have deadly consequences. And still his sister was so sure that she was above those consequences.  
  
And now she would bear one.  
  
Leyadriel's announcement that she was pregnant had shattered most of the calm left in his life. He went along with his sister's plot to cover up her fall from grace, though he knew she'd long since lost her virtue she had never been soiled in his mind until she announced his nephew or niece to him. That was the moment, the first true time, that he had ever thought his sister whore-ish. She leapt into Pengwaith's bed so young, so naïve to life's treacherous whips and then she shared the Mirkwood Prince's. He knew this, for she had confided in him, how greatly she missed her Lord, how much she wished him return, how Pengwaith's hands would ever be cold, clammy, and clumsy besides Legolas'. An over-share on her part, he thought.  
  
Then she went to Pengwaith's bed again, and now she was heavy with child. Just a few more months and she would be holding her shame in her arms, would be looking after its wellbeing for the rest of its life.  
  
He, at least, would never be able to look at his nephew without remembering the state of its conception. The slut's escape from pain that Leyadriel had chosen.  
  
But then again, he thought silently, I am no better.  
  
He gazed at Naeva, still young to be as learned as she was in bed, and her virtue belonged to him, he had taught her everything. She was his escape, his freedom, the one thing that Leyadriel's burdens hadn't completely intruded on.  
  
But it wasn't just Leyadriel, he conceded. Galaniel had joined the Rangers, proudly flaunting her father's blood with her skill. Celebrene journeyed with Prince Imrahil's daughter to Rohan, for both sought the hand of Eomer, and Silmarwen was courting as well, many Gondorian men sought her favor.  
  
Between his sisters and his love, he scarcely had time to be worried. And yet he was.  
  
What if something ill happened to them? What if Galaniel fell? What if Celebrene's friend won Eomer's heart and she did not? What if Silmarwen's match was as poor as Leyadriel's first one had been?  
  
What if Leyadriel miscarried?  
  
Though, an evil thought crept into his mind, it would almost be more fair to Leyadriel if she did loose the child, then at least she would not have to suffer the knowledge that it was Pengwaith's son for the rest of eternity.  
  
What if Naeva left him? His heart sank, what if she got pregnant?  
  
Simple enough, he'd marry her. He'd rather her be shamed then her leave him. He wouldn't be able to bear it if she left him. She was the only thing that kept him sane.  
  
And he wanted to keep his sanity.  
  
Thinking that it was time he stopped procrastinating, he gently slipped the Telcontar crest onto her slender finger.  
  
He heaved a great sigh, one less worry.  
  
A/N- I know I;m a horrible horrible author, when was the last time I updated? Sorry girls! I've got a new love: Underworld. If you haven't seen this movie (and fallen head over heels for Lucian's story) then ...your just not cool, lol. PLEASE REVIEW! Please please please please. I promise I'll attempt to update quicker. 


	51. I know I lost You

A/N- I was re-reading my plot cheat sheet and I ...well I had to update. To make up for the gaps of updating. (  
  
Hehehe maybe not.  
  
Chapter 51- I Lost You  
  
Pengwaith was pacing in his room; Leyadriel's guards were outside his door and his window..... there was no escape. He couldn't take a piss without her knowing about it, he was under the worst lock and key, far worse then prison. He had thought that his seduction had been perfect this time; it wasn't even a complete stunt.  
  
For all that he'd ever done to her, he thought her beautiful. How could he not? Her beauty had caught his eye before her crown had, and she normally had a sweet disposition ...... he assumed that her inconvenient impregnation had led her to be the slightest bit angry at him.  
  
A knock came to the door, interrupting his thoughts, and Leyadriel waddled through, her swollen belly making her strides less fluid if not less graceful then they always had been. Her hair was down and the midnight locks fell past her burden, her face glowed with the ethereal beauty of her kin, pregnancy agreed with her.  
  
"Good evening my Lady, here to make your leash on me shorter?" he snapped, aggravated.  
  
"Really now, I've kept you from a cell, have I not? Would you prefer to be back in the dungeons?" Her voice soothed his anger; it was a voice make for cooing lullabies to babes.  
  
He sat down and ran a hand over his face; it was still as fair as it had been when their first liaison had transpired. She sat beside him and he spoke into his hands, "What do you want?"  
  
She looked into her lap and wrung her hands, "I was remembering us....... You've hurt me."  
  
He looked at her, wondering where she was going as she continued, "You must be a wonderful actor, to have me so fooled by your performance for so long......how did you do it?"  
  
"Why do you care to know?" He asked, not particularly caring for the direction this conversation was headed.  
  
"Because I want to know what my son might be capable of doing," she rubbed her belly absentmindedly, "I want to know the second half of him for what it really is; I want to know who you really are."  
  
Pengwaith looked at her belly for the first time since she had told him the news. He really stared at it and tentatively reached out a hand.....and placed it over his unborn son. Something moved and he jerked his grasp away but Leyadriel only laughed and placed his hand over the swell again.  
  
"He's kicking; he does that when new people touch him."  
  
Pengwaith smiled for a moment, a genuine smile of awe at the tiny life he'd helped to create, "Why do you keep calling it 'him'?"  
  
"Because it's a boy," Leyadriel smiled softly, the smile all mothers to be wear, "Methion, that's his name."  
  
"Methion," Pengwaith tested the name on his tongue like some men tested wine, "What does it mean?"  
  
"Son of love." And with that Leyadriel's eyes turned on Pengwaith's and she was deadly serious, "It is not for love of you that I gave him that name, I love him, he is my son, the only love in my life now."  
  
Pengwaith nodded, he was arrogant but not stupid, there was little love lost between he and Leyadriel. It had been robbed from them long ago, when they were too young to appreciate it.  
  
Maybe she deserved to know about that, he felt the baby kick again and he decided. Yes, yes she did.  
  
"If you want to know the truth.....I'll tell you." He patted the bed beside him, honestly in his eyes for the first time in countless years.  
  
***Flashback***  
  
Pengwaith was playing with a bow and arrow, made for a young boy such as himself: blunted and loose, harmless in every regard. He was running around the house like a madman, enjoying if nothing else the feel of the air rushing past him, the smell of the kitchens' concoctions wafting through the halls of his childhood home.  
  
"Pengwaith!" He heard his mother's voice call, husky but soothing to his ears he ran to his mother. She was young in his memory, but even with her youth gray edges tinged her hair and frown lines began to creep onto her cheeks. Age had taken her quickly, he knew now, and now he pitied that she had so little time to spend with what had been a great beauty.  
  
His mother was one eighth elvish, a fact he had never been allowed to forget. His blood had immortality laced into it, making him better then his peers; his father had told him so long ago he couldn't place it. Mere mortals, he had been instructed, would look upon the little elf lord and quiver in respect and fear.  
  
Respect and Fear, they went hand in hand  
  
And when one became greater then other was Grand  
  
And so said the Kings who ruled o'er the Land,  
  
Great Fear and Respect make a powerful man.  
  
That had been the rhyme he had first heard as a child, it was part of a greater story of a wealthy old king who purchased happiness and sold it to his people and....... Well that was a story for another time.  
  
Anyway.......  
  
Pengwaith ran into his mother's arms, his poor mother old before her time, and she gripped his face firmly in his hands, "Come, come little lord. Your father's been looking for you; his ears are fuming with impatience."  
  
The color drained from the little boys face, when his father was angry no good came of it.  
  
She led him into the parlor and his father turned around and strode over to him quickly, gripping his shoulder painfully hard, "Where have you been boy?!"  
  
"Playing." Mumbled the child, looking at his shoes rather then his father's raging eyes.  
  
"Playing?! Do you think Lords play?"  
  
"No, sir."  
  
"That's right! They don't! And if ever want to live up to your name and not shame mine you'll start behaving like one!"  
  
"Yessir." It was almost an inaudible reply and his father made him repeat it until he almost screamed it, "YESSIR!"  
  
His father smiled evilly and unhooked his belt, "Turn around, boy."  
  
Tears started forming in Pengwaith's eyes, he knew what was coming but before he could hide his face from his father the old man gripped his jaw so hard that it later bruised, "What's this? Tears?"  
  
"No." Pengwaith willed himself not to cry but the more he tried not to the more the tears flowed down his cheeks. The Lord turned on his wife with a viciously backhand that sent her to the floor, "You soften him too much!"  
  
She may have mumbled a reply, she may have just been whimpering in pain, Pengwaith couldn't tell.  
  
"There is no crying, boy, when life's unfair you accept it with your chin high! There are no tears!" He swung his thick belt around and it smacked against the boy's skin loudly, smacking sickeningly against the youngster's hide.  
  
Blood stained the back of Pengwaith's tunic, tears stained his pale cheeks.  
  
What had he done? What had he ever done? Nothing, at least nothing good enough, nothing worth his father's love or respect. His father was ashamed of him, even his mother could scarcely look at him. He would do anything t please them, anything to stop being the shame of his blood. He was better, better then the others and yet he had not lived up to the expectations laid in front of him.  
  
He sniffled and wiped his tears away on his sleeve and looked at his father, "You wanted to see me, sir?"  
  
The old Lord was now wearing a crooked smile, "Yes, I've something I want you to do."  
  
***End Flashback***  
  
"That night he first took me to your birthday party, that night I danced with you. He told me that I was to keep an eye on you, a close watch until he told me my next move. I listened to him, obeyed him, what choice did I have?" Pengwaith was staring blankly at the wall as Leyadriel listened attentively, her face not betraying her true bewilderment, Gwainath was known for his bluntness and brutality.  
  
"But what about after that, after we'd been together. Surely that wasn't an act; surely your father doesn't have that much influence over you." She cooed.  
  
The pained expression in Pengwaith's eyes was nothing short of years of being his father's foot soldier, anything Gwainath said to do, he did, if his father had told him to slice open his wrists he'd have done it and died hoping his father would love him enough to bury him.  
  
"You've no idea what he would do....." Another memory flashed behind his eyes willing him to share it:  
  
**Flash Back**  
  
Pengwaith was now a boy bordering on manhood, soon he would be grown enough to take charge of his father's affairs, if Gwainath allowed him the privilege. He had long since won Leyadriel's heart, he could see it in her eyes, her gestures, he could hear it in every word they shared and it lightened his heart. Never in his life had someone loved him.  
  
His mother was afraid to love him, afraid to talk to him or touch him, his father..... he wasn't sure his father could love.  
  
His elf princess, his beautiful girl. No matter what the others said about her face, beauty still graced her. The scar, he thought, made her look more human, more real then most elves looked to his eyes.  
  
"Pengwaith!!" He flinched upon hearing his father's voice but he calmly stood his ground, erasing all emotion from his face and standing soldier- stiff in his own garden.  
  
"Yes, sir?"  
  
"Where have you been?" This was his father's favorite question to ask him, it wasn't as though the old man cared at all, he just had run out of commands, run out of wishes. He didn't trust his son with much so he had little to berate him about except his location throughout the day.  
  
Pengwaith opened his mouth to answer but his father raised a hand to silence him and began sniffing the air like a hound on the scent of a fox.  
  
"Flowers? Strange flowers." Gwainath for all his faults was an expert gardener and within minutes had reached into his son's breast pocket and pulled out a small diary that held a pressed elanor blossom that Leyadriel had given him earlier when he'd met her.  
  
"Elanor, father."  
  
"You were with that elf wench again." Gwainath stated ominously.  
  
"What of it if I was?" Pengwaith snapped irritably causing his father to slap him straight across his face.  
  
"Dammit boy! It's worse then what I feared! That is the third time in as many days that you've seen her!"  
  
"You told me to win her; I do not see why the way I choose to woo her has anything to do with it as long as I woo her." Pengwaith's reply was barely a whisper; his jaw was on fire from his father's reprimand.  
  
"Son......the last thing I need is you to turn from a fool to a lovesick fool. You're useless enough to me when you have your full wits! How am I supposed to trust you with anything if you spend all your time with the she-elf? How am I supposed to give you more responsibility if you dedicate your time to her? You are unfortunately all I have in the way of an heir and my time will not be longstanding. Let me tell you this now, boy, your not going to be left so much as a dime until you stop your foolhardy ways and begin to act like a man and not a child. Do you understand?"  
  
With a face of stone, Pengwaith realized that everything he had worked for his whole life; his father's approval, trust and respect, were so close at hand and only his emotions stood between him and his goal.  
  
He thought of the dedication behind Leyadriel's eyes and looked into his future behind his father's cold grey ones.  
  
He chose.  
  
**End Flashback**  
  
Pengwaith tentatively reached out a hand towards Leyadriel's stomach, now he regretted his choice but there was nothing he could do. Years of all the mental and physical abuse from his father had only ended a few months ago, at his father's funeral he'd not shed a tear. But in his father's will, Pengwaith was given everything, every last dime.  
  
He should've been happy, decades of effort were put into that one moment, that one achievement and now that he had it......it felt so empty and meaningless.  
  
He looked in her eyes, his fingers resting over the heartbeat of their son, "I know that I lost you, and I can't say that I didn't deserve it. But I don't know anything spare what my father taught me. My heart will never beat like this babe's does. My eyes can't cry genuine tears. Even telling you this is like sticking a knife in my own back, betraying everything I've worked for for so long. I won't ask for forgiveness, I don't want that nor pity nor understanding."  
  
He withdrew his hand form her swollen belly and looked away, "I want you to leave and I want to be released. I want you to go now before I change my mind and hurt you."  
  
"Hurt me?"  
  
"That was the deal I made with your sister. All she wanted was you dead, dead so that Legolas could not return to you. All this time I have been waiting for the right moment, the right time, the right place. Now please go before I do something more foolish then everything I've already done."  
  
She nodded and glided to the door, resting an arm on top of her burden and took one last look at Pengwaith, all her questions about him both answered and multiplied. She gave a fleeting smile of pity to his back and left him to his internal battle; as much as she wanted she could not help him fight his demons...... she had enough of her own to face.  
  
A/N- I know its beeen tooooo longl Sorry. What did you think? Please tell me in the form of a review. 


	52. Hope's Folly

A/N- You guys wanted to see Lego-boy, how can I deny my wonderful readers what they so desperately desire?  
  
FYI- In May ROTK is coming to DVD and video, buy a copy and drool over it, then re-read my ficcy (  
  
WE BROKE A THOUSAND REVIEWS! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU  
  
Chapter 52- Hope's Folly  
  
Elaren was uncharacteristically silent. The ship left Valinor at speed indeed the Elvish shores shooed the boat away like a scolded child and the wind gently urged the Mirkwood Prince closer to his forsaken princess each moment. The winds were fair and brought him fast but it never seemed fast enough. He wanted to be by her that very moment, the thought of her alone, hurt, unaided; left vulnerable and unprotected chilled his very blood and near stilled his heart. Galadriel had not assured him anything, refusing to share with him either Leyadriel's potential future or his own.  
  
That had not heartened him.  
  
He leaned his forehead against his hand and let loose a deep breath, he was tired of worrying, tired of hoping, tired of guessing and praying.....he wanted, no *needed* answers.  
  
The empty stars and skies were all he had for assurance, he thought glumly as he gazed at them. Everyday the light in his eyes died a little more, deadened a little more. His hope was fading, he had gone too long supporting himself solely on hope.  
  
The fellowship had had enough of hope's use as a lifeline.  
  
He could recall it now, if he wished, the endless days and nights, innumerable hours spent counting the dead and dying, asking more people to fight and counting them among the corpses later. Faces standing armies numbering in the ten thousand, one hundred thousand, and having scarce three thousand troops to defend yourself with. Feeling the stink of blood mixed with sweat and tears and grim, dirt infecting open wounds, tears falling over old and new scars.  
  
Children dying or watching their own parents fall to the enemies blade.  
  
How many families had perished in their entirety? How many had left just widows and orphans behind?  
  
Those battles, those torments, had plagued him and all that kept him from submitting to the madness that wooed him was the faint and distant hope of a hobbit's will.  
  
Yes indeed, Legolas son of Thranduil had had enough of trusting his sanity, soul and life to mere hope.  
  
He wished he were not so utterly alone, mayhap then he could trust to hope.  
  
The breeze came off of the water, cooling his face and spraying it lightly with the salty film only sea water could produce. The waves and wind seemed to be singing, he thought he picked up a voice......vague and distant......but yes it was there.  
  
It sounded like Arwen, strangely like the Evenstar:  
  
May it be an evening star  
  
Shines down upon you  
  
May it be when darkness falls  
  
Your heart will be true  
  
You walk a lonely road  
  
Oh! How far you are from home  
  
Mornië ut¨²lië (Quenya: Darkness has come)  
  
Believe and you will find your way  
  
Mornië alantië (Quenya: Darkness has fallen)  
  
A promise lives within you now  
  
May it be the shadow's call  
  
Will fly away  
  
May it be your journey on  
  
To light the day  
  
When the night is overcome  
  
You may rise to find the sun  
  
Mornië ut¨²lië (Quenya: Darkness has come)   
  
Believe and you will find your way  
  
Mornië alantië (Quenya: Darkness has fallen)   
  
A promise lives within you now  
  
A promise lives within you now  
  
A promise.....yes a promise. He remembered now that Arwen had trusted her second born to his keeping. He remembered promising the corpse of his beloved mortal friend, his Estel, that he would care for his little girl.  
  
And circumstances beyond his control had prevented that.  
  
But not anymore. Not anymore indeed. It would be as he had told his father it would be: they would be together in life or death, live side by side or be buried side by side.  
  
The breeze had comforted him immensely, Arwen's soothing words carried by the wind and water, they had given him the energy to go on. They'd been meant for hope, he knew, but he'd had enough of hope.  
  
He didn't want to hope to hold Leyadriel, he wanted to actually feel her in his arms, wanted to breath in the smell of her hair and taste her lips and hear her voice.  
  
Hope was lost on him, he was beyond hope, beyond desperate. He was a dying man on life's last quest. If he found her grave he'd lie down and die, if he found her again..... he'd be reborn into a new and better mate for her then he had been before.  
  
Hope? Hope couldn't give him nor take from him anything more then what life had already.  
  
He sat at the front of the ship as it cut through the water majestically, still on course and never ceasing, never sleeping, never straying .....just like him.  
  
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*  
  
Elaren had indeed been uncharacteristically silent. She was beyond her grief and only beginning to cope with her pain. The elves had healed her body but had left her mind for her own tending. All she could hear echoing in the chambers of her thoughts was the same revelation, over and over, that everything she'd always believed was false. That it was her imagination that over and over again her sister sought to best her for the spite of it, that Legolas had fawned over her and Leyadriel had cruelly stolen him away.  
  
Galadriel had told her this much and not lightly: that she was a young girl, little more then a child, playing on dangerous ground with dangerous people and that if she believed herself beyond their justice, she was gravely mistaken.  
  
Her great-grandmother had told her, as well, that she had a gift for looking beyond the façade of things, and right now she turned that keen eye on herself and saw, but refused to believe, every word the Lady of the Light had spoken.  
  
She looked out of her window and saw that the ship was still on the straightest, quickest course home and she realized her fate.  
  
She had committed treason. Elven law held bindings and love above all else and she had purposely torn apart and stained a loving near-marriage because she held a petty, childish jealousy. She realized how she made herself look, how her actions had looked, how horribly selfish and blind all her motives were.  
  
She had been a fool but she didn't trust to hope that pleading for her sister's mercy would get her anywhere. She had stolen Leyadriel's betrothed from their bed after raping him, he nearly faded and she had caused archers to nearly kill her.  
  
She was guilty of high treason: the attempted murder of a scion of Telcontar.  
  
The penalty was death.  
  
Once they reached Gondor she would be imprisoned, perhaps tried for the sake of publicly humiliating her, but most assuredly she'd be executed.  
  
The last thing Elaren wanted was to die in a wretched prison cell awaiting her sister's mercy for an easy death. Despite her revelations, she and her sister had formed a bitter rivalry, one that would not be patched up for Elaren had crossed the point of no return.  
  
She could still fight Leyadriel. All of Aragorn and Arwen's children had been trained to at least hold their defense with a blade, she could use her skill against her sister's.  
  
Elaren held no illusions, her sister was a minor soldier, she had fought in Ithilien and had the experience of her dreams to enhance her battle prowess, Elaren merely had dusty lessons from when she was eleven years old but hand to hand combat with Leyadriel had one gleaming prospect over allowing herself to be put into prison: the chance for escape. She'd have to run long and far but if she fought there was still the chance to be free.  
  
She'd have to bide her time well, and she'd no way of knowing until she arrived there what if any changes had been made.  
  
With luck her sister was dead and her old ally would assist her.  
  
Without luck she was in a prison cell, locked up awaiting a swift blade.  
  
She didn't dare to hope, hope was a deadly thing in such a deadly game as she played for she was now committed to not die without putting up a fight.  
  
A/N- yes I know it's been terribly long since I last updated. Its not that long but how was it? 


	53. All Your Demons Are Heaven Sent

A/N- the results to the fanficcy awards are in. I lost and I can't believe to who. Its nearly an outrage although I will have to read over the winning LOTR fanfiction (Eldarwen: Maiden of the Stars) but I recall looking over the other pieces and being anything but impressed.  
  
O well, I know you guys still love me.  
  
Chapter 53- All your Demons are Heaven-Sent  
  
** He was reaching out for her, extending a hand, pleading her to grab it, to trust him. His face was contorted with primal fear and panic, he hissed her name, hurrying her, rushing her. Her life was in danger, he said, he was trying to save her, she had to trust him. She had to or she'd die.  
  
But he'd already broken her heart once, she was not eager to experience that pain again, she'd prefer death....but is that what her child deserved? Inside her the baby squirmed, making her realize no, no it didn't and his voice was screaming at her to grab his hand and let him save her.  
  
She reached out but before she did she felt a piercing sharp pain in her belly.....but this was no labor-pain.....it was a blade. NO!!!!!!!!!!!! She looked around and saw the faces of her oldest oppressors, the foes she had fought since childhood.**  
  
"NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Leyadriel screamed and sat up in bed and clasped her hands around the wound. Warm, sticky red blood gushed between her figures and she could almost hear her baby screaming in shock, the sound ricocheting through her head.  
  
"Tula! TULA SINOME!" {Come! Come here!} She moaned for an aid, normally she would try to treat herself but her burden wouldn't let her.  
  
But it wasn't the baby, she could feel where the blood was coming from and it was on the fleshy part of her waist, far away from the baby, Elbereth be blessed.  
  
Her nurses came running and quickly patched her up, warning her not to stress herself too greatly, that she was at a fragile stage in her life, only a few months away from birthing a child and too much excitement was not good for her.  
  
"Mistress, are you quite certain the wee one is a'right?" One elderly woman speaking through one yellowing tooth.  
  
"Unless I'm carrying him in my waist, he's absolutely fine just a little rattled.... He's not quite used to them yet."  
  
She nodded as they fretted over her, allowing the grandmotherly women to coo and coddle over her swollen stomach and tut over her until they were satisfied and then they fed her well and properly and left her on her own.  
  
They had warned Leyadriel to stay abed but she was never one for being an invalid, she was pregnant not broken to pieces and she would not be contained to her mattress. She stood up and smoothed one hand over her stomach, gliding over to watch the sunrise from her window.  
  
"Shhh, penmeleth, shhhh. Nothing's wrong now, the darkness has passed." {little love} Leyadriel pulled up a satin cushioned chair and plopped into it.  
  
There are things about a sunrise that only those who witness one can truly appreciate, and Leyadriel had witnessed a good many in her lifetime. The way that the fireball slowly paints the pastel oranges, pinks and muted reds into the lightening blue as it makes it procession into the sky was so masterfully down that Leyadriel knew Elbereth herself must have has to take up the paintbrush. The way the eerie sound of night owls and crickets gives way to birds slowly waking from sleep and greeting their blazing patron still brought tears to her eyes. She let the morning creatures coo to her unborn and closed her own eyes in awed appreciation.  
  
She let her heart remain calm for a moment, for her dream had woken old terrors slumbering inside of her.  
  
Soon the birds became commonplace again, soon the sun's artistry was lost on the normalcy of clouds stuck in a blue base and it was time to face her demons again. In her dream......never had that happened before, an outsider intruding on her torment. Spare for her mother and father crossing over from the realm of the dead, she had always suffered alone with only the helpless waking to hear her screams. But ...... so clear, so vibrant.  
  
A glow had radiated from him, an ethereal glow of beauty and power and majesty that could only be reached from thousands of years of striving for perfection in every aspect of life. This glow did not belong to the glorified dead come to protect her, this glow belonged to pure living perfection, sculpted of flesh and blood and given a soul. He had flaxen locks that blended with the light around him, giving him more of a halo then her dark-locked parents had had, he had eyes so deep you could swim in them....indeed how many times has she fantasized doing just that? How many hours had they laid awake, he somewhere between the waking world and beyond, she never straying from consciousness, just holding each other, looking at each other, utterly immersed in their own private paradise?  
  
Too many to count both real and imagined.  
  
Legolas.....she couldn't bear to speak the name, even thinking it hurt her just now having seen his face so clear and real she thought if she had reached out....could she have touched him as the evil beings in her dreams touched her?  
  
For a rare moment it was like dreaming as normal people do, dreaming of things you wish to see, or things that are on your mind and sadly the golden prince was both to her. But .....why was he there? He looked utterly afraid but not of what was in the dream, he looked afraid for her.  
  
Or was he just trying to save her from the orcs? Something he had always sworn to do? It made no sense, why now? Was he perhaps done with Elaren and now seeking to woo her back through her dreams? Was he in Valinor using some Elven power to invade her dreams?  
  
She closed her eyes and remembered the dream, which disturbed the young prince inside her, he was still very much terrified of the dark beings that always tried to hit him and by Elbereth's grace missed. Leyadriel vividly recalled her beloved again, saw his face so clearly that tears fell down her cheeks, her heart freshly bleeding at the emptiness where he had once belonged, and she saw those brilliant blue eyes looking past her...past her as he hurried her to grab his hand. In her mind she saw the dream as if she wasn't herself in it and saw her attacker behind her body, but not where Legolas was looking, no where he was looking stood.......  
  
Dear Elbereth......... Elaren.  
  
Her blood boiled at the thought of her sister, and she snapped her eyes opened and grabbed a vase, flinging it across the room so it shattered into a million pieces. Methion shivered inside her, her rage frightened him more then even the evil orcs in her dreams and he recoiled slightly in side her tummy, coiling tighter into his position until she whispered words of calm, soft sincere apologizes to her son.  
  
What did this mean? Was Elaren returning? Was Legolas? If so, were they coming with ill intent?  
  
She rubbed her temples, her head and heart equally aching remembering the archer's face. Methion asked, in his pre-born state, in a connection perhaps only the elvish had with their unborn young for no mortal had ever experienced it, who the elf was his mother thought of.  
  
A demon. She replied, A demon who hurt me very badly once.  
  
Methion's aura was disbelieving and he flooded the backs of her eyes with images of orcs as if to say those were demons, the other was an elf, little more.  
  
Leyadriel smiled at the babe, she was growing most impatient for this impetuous nymph to be born and in her arms, and sang a verse of a song to him, a verse that explained her answer better then she could, explaining why the innocent looking elf was a monster:  
Innocence is a face that always lies  
  
Innocence is a wish for some  
  
But it's something I can't buy  
  
What are you trying to prove?  
  
So many mountains to move  
  
And all your demons are heaven sent  
  
My lost cathartic friend  
  
Once more Methion flashed images of orcs to his mother asking, *all* your demons, mother? To this Leyadriel smiled pensively and gazed to the horizon on which a dot had been growing larger for the better part of an hour, she spoke aloud this time, "No small one, not all of them. But my greatest demon was heaven sent.......and heaven taken." * * * * * *  
  
Galadriel watched the exchange between Leyadriel and her unborn, tears coming to her eyes as she remembered long talking to Celebrain, receiving all the while, frustrated glances from Celeborn who had far fewer ways to communicate with a babe he'd not see for the better part of a year.  
  
The elven queen longed to touch the waters surface, to stroke her great- granddaughters hair and share baby-tales with the maid, a chance she sorely hoped to have, a chance she was not sure she would have for the mirror still did not show her which of Arwen's children would be lost to death by her sister's hand.  
  
A rumbling sounded in the distance and Galadriel looked at the graying sky, confused. It did not storm in Valinor, the purest of all places, no angry clouds gathered over Valinor's treetops and yet....they were.  
  
Quick as a flash a bolt of lighting streamed down and struck Galadriel's mirror, shattering in half, sending all the water sizzling and sloshing over the edges... a sign from Elbereth herself. Galadriel was to see no more into the fogs of past, present and future.....she was to hold her breath in suspense as other's did.  
  
She was not one to argue with Elbereth's bidding, she caught the breathe had gripped her throat in terror as the lightening struck and let it go, she smoothed her skirts and set to see Celeborn, to inform him before the other's that his wife was no longer a seer.  
  
She was just Galadriel, Former Lady of Light, Queen of Lothlorien, but most notably a wife, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother. These were beyond a doubt the greatest of her accomplishments.  
  
A/N- Cathartic is defined as emotionally purging. **THAT SONG IS BY THE TEA PARTY IT IS CALLED CATHARTIK** What do you think? Soon they shall be reunited but that was a little appetizer foreshadowing their final reunion. Please Review!!! 


	54. Dream Nymphs

A/N- I had to restart this chapter because half way through I was re- reading and it just didn't make any sense. So sorry for the delay and the brevity but it is a cliff-hanger.  
  
Ch. 54- Dream Nymphs  
  
His dream had been pleasant enough, he had seen his Leyadriel being crowned, had seen her looking so damnably beautiful. He had seen the wind gently caress the soft fabric of the dress, felt the moist ground under his feet, saw severed strands of grass cling to her bare feet.  
  
She looked beautiful.......then the scene was torn away from him and his heart broke.  
  
'It matters little; there are a mere pair of days between her and I. Soon we shall be together again.' A small smile hung on his lips, but he dare not revel in it too much. Not until he reached the shores of Middle Earth would he be able to receive news of her.  
  
'Til then he could do naught but pine for her and dream about her.  
  
He closed his eyes and hoped to dream of her again.  
  
He never believed he would regret that wish......  
  
Legolas saw her again, that nymph-like face, those slender limb, lily-white with those sea deep eyes. Her forever tear standing out against her face, glorious flawed perfection. She was in a nightdress...... what was this? Her stomach was swollen out beyond her breasts, she looked.....she looked as though she were with child.  
  
_Vanima Elbereth!_ Was that Elaren? It was!_ Mandos! _Elaren holding a dagger prepared to strike the _back_ of her sister! A knife in her back, the coward!  
  
He was calling out to her, reaching for her, trying to save her.  
  
_'Take my hand and I'll save you,_' he pleaded silently, _'I shall keep you safe, my love_.'  
  
And yet her eyes were fearful as they regarded him. _Why was she afraid of him? Did she not know he would die to save her?_  
  
He tried to hurry her to his side, she was weaponless, defenseless.....she moved as if she were greatly burdened. All around her the orc were swarming, the dead were coming to wreak their eternal revenge.  
  
Finally she reached for him but it was too late, he saw a blade meet her flesh, heard her scream!  
  
"NOOOOOOOO!!!!!" Who had screamed that, his little jewel or himself?

Then he woke, broken out in a cold sweat and shaking. What was that? His dream or hers? Was she safe or injured?  
  
He would be there soon......so soon....but maybe it would not be soon enough? Was she hurt? Lonely? Sad? Why did she look as if she carried a child?  
  
What if she was?! Could it be? _Their_ child, perhaps. The fruit of their love?  
  
He had wanted it, true, had craved it. But had she? Was it even possible that a child had been conceived without his knowing about it?  
  
For the thousandth time in as many hours he felt like he had lost control of his life. His soon-to-be wife was still two days away from him; she seemed to be with child, perhaps his; her dreams were still plaguing her if his dream was any guide to her life; her sister, the lands greatest traitor, would need judgment passed. She might well need to kill her own flesh and blood. And he could not even bid the winds to quicken his pace. One more day on the sea, just one and then a hard day's ride and he would be holding her again.  
  
He had missed his nymphs so, he could not bare to dream of her any longer for the torture of it was too great. He needed to see her and hold her and kiss her and love her and never leave her again.  
  
He needed to live what he dreamed of......don't we all?  
  
A/N- Yeah I know I know slaps wrist bad author! Bad! It sucks, its short, I'm horrible, you may submit your complaints in writing (i.e. reviews) but what can I say in my defense? It's transitional still. The next few chapters (if all goes according to plan) should be mainly about Legolas and his two day journey to Gondor. Soon: the reunion! Yay! cheering in background but recall all the new issues: the pregnancy, the sister, the reunion, the explanations.......the daggers. Bwahahahahaha. Love you all so dearly. Ciao. (By the way this was also delayed because I was in Italy for a time.....the food was terrible {five dollar a day hotel meals} but the sites were great, but alas I was away from my computer and couldn't type up the chapter)


	55. The Shortest Longest Journeyeditted

A/N- I tried to get it better and quicker!!!! Remember, I used to spend six months planning a new part, now I gotta pop one out every month or so. Quality or quantity ladies

This is the editted version. Kudos to the alert reviewer who alerted me!

Chapter 54- The Shortest Longest Journey-edited  
  
The shore was coming closer and closer ... he blinked, rubbed his eyes, but as always they did not lie. He could make out every leaf on the trees by the shore. He inhaled a deep breathe and the air was not so sweet as in Valinor, the grass not so green, the sky not so blue. Everything mortality had touched seemed stale... but he could almost smell her hair on the breeze.  
  
Legolas, ever the hunter, mounted his horse, filled his quiver and pulled his hood up. Her hands bound, a chain attaching them to Legolas' saddle like a led ass, Elaren rode as a prisoner instead of a princess. He bowed his head to his crew and bid them to wait a year, no more, no less. If he did not return in a year then he was dead, as was his bride, and they were to bring the ill tidings to his family; tell them that he had finally found his peace and was resting there eternally, no longer alone.  
They embraced him as if he were a dying brother, some were crying with the thought that he may not be coming back. He smiled sadly at them, he very much hoped that he returned though not so much for their sake's as for his own, returning would mean Leyadriel would be with him again.  
He took little pity on Elaren as they rode. The horses were stout and strong and, most importantly of all, fast. One of the riders, however, was bound at the hands and was not nearly so skilled a rider and repeatedly fell or nearly fell from her mount. Sometimes she fell just for spite, to slow their speed to Gondor. When she did this Legolas would throw her over her saddle and speed off again less merciful then before. The horses were winded, sweating and shaking from the harsh transition of being stabled on a ship to being pushed to their limits, Legolas was desperate to get to Leyadriel but not so much that he would kill his brother's stallion Arodal or his stable-mate, Nareth. So they paused in a little town on the outskirts of Gondor to feed and water the horses, and for news which Legolas had been anxious for. Though she'd not admit it, Elaren was anxious too, she needed fresh news of her sister to plot a last stand for herself. A kind-hearted farm girl took pity on the muddied beasts (and their masters) and washed them as rider and ridden alike ate and drank.  
"You're riding them very hard, in a hurry to get somewhere, stranger?" The girl, Frena asked him, his hood was still drawn so she could not see his face but he spoke with a gentle accent and he was kind.  
"Yes, we are. We ride for Gondor as fast as possible."  
"Gondor is a large city. May I ask where in Gondor, stranger?"  
He smiled at her, "Telling you may ruin the surprise of it."  
"I would promise not to tell."  
"I've no doubt that you'd honor that but even stables have ears, and I would prefer my secrecy, lady. Could you tell me news of my destination?"  
She stroked Arodal's hair in circles, cleaning out dirt and loose hair, she blew a stray strand of hair out of her face, "What was the last news you heard of the city?"  
Legolas drew in a breath, it was time to see how much had changed, "That Princess Leyadriel was crowned Lady of the Light, Queen of the Elves, and became engaged to Prince Legolas and then he disappeared."  
"Disappeared with the Princess Elaren, the Half-Elven. Neither have since been seen."  
"How distress the Lady Leyadriel must have been." Legolas was milking her for information, he knew he had been with Elaren, what did this girl know that he didn't.  
"I suppose she was, but I reckon her mind has been pre-occupied with the babe..."  
"What babe?" The question cut through the air sharply.  
"She's with child, sir."  
She was? His knees gave out and he fell to a heap next to Arodal, whose head perked up perhaps to see what made his master so distressed.  
"Sh—she is?" It was unlike the Elven Prince to so stumble over his words but they caught in his throat.  
"Yes....are you well, stranger?"  
"Shocked......A babe? Truly?"  
"Yes, truly."  
His joy overwhelmed him, of all the dreams that could come true! Him, a father?  
"How far along is she?"  
"I could not say for certain, but I think it's to be born in a few months."  
He felt a song on his lips and would've sung, told her his name, revealed his identity and celebrated his child's existence... had the girl not clucked her tongue, "Tis a shame."  
"Mani naa?" {What is?} The remark was sharp, what disapproval had this girl to offer about his child? He did not even recognize that he'd spoken elvish until the words were gone from his tongue.  
She looked at him, frozen in shock, "Are you an...elf?"  
He was angry for his slip, the loss of his secrecy, but removed his hood and bowed to her, "Aye, I am."  
She fell into a clumsy farm-girl curtsy, "My Lord."  
"Please, I would hear the reason behind your comment."  
The girl was so enthralled by him that she had forgotten she'd been speaking to him at all, "My words, my lord?"  
"You said 'Tis a shame' and I'd like to know what, per say, is such a shame."  
"Oh sir! Tis just....well I much preferred the first prince to this new one..."  
"New One?!??!" Legolas raged.  
The girl was taken aback by his harshness, "Ye—yes my-my lord.... The human lord is---is rumored to be---very---unkind."  
"Not Lord Pengwaith?!"  
"The same."  
Legolas hit a wall with a closed fist and nearly broke all the fingers in his hand. Had the wall not been made of rock and his bones not elven-strong he may well have hurt both severely.  
"She has taken him back?" The softness of his tone betrayed his rage, how long had he suffered being away from her? How long had he loved her and yearned for her? He'd come back for her, a feat not heard of in the lore of the elves.... And she had taken back Pengwaith of all people? She should've sent him to his death the moment she laid eyes on him, she should've sent him to the executioner without a trial, without a jury, just with the knowledge that he was a heartless, cruel man who did not deserve to live on this earth among those possessing souls.  
"Why yes, she had to! She made an announcement about it."  
"About what?"  
"How he is not to be king but that she carrying his child."  
WHAT?!  
Tears came to his eyes, No! No, no, no, no, no. Not this. Anything but this. Anything but seeing her carrying his child! I would almost rather her dead then live and be his.  
Legolas gathered Arodal together and found Elaren eavesdropping at the door, he had no patience for her now and she seemed to understand for she said naught. Without a word they mounted and left, their bellies half full, one heart completely empty.  
----------------------------------  
  
Leyadriel was in a particularly good mood. She had never had a finer day, the sun was bright, the sky was clear, the air was crisp and she had never felt so graceful, so strong. She had come out of her chambers this morning after a night of reading poetry and painting and was all but singing.  
Her day only became better when a muddied stable-boy came bursting into her dining room.  
"My lady! My lady!"  
"Yes?"  
"Your mare's in labor!"  
Du-amrun's foal had decided to enter the world in its own time and Leyadriel was more then happy to welcome it now. She gathered her skirts and hobbled out to the stable, waving her hand dismissively at her poor brother and telling him that she was playing nurse-maid to her horse this day and that she was not to be disturbed. Eldarion shook his head; pregnancy had done strange things to his sister's moods. It had made them come unexpected and more potent then ever before. It would take the rise of Sauron to dark her mood this day.  
Little did he know the dot on the horizon coming closer and closer would have just as strong an effect, for are not love and hate only a hair's breadth separated?  
  
A/N- Ok that takes care of the damn foal ( happy tears I love that little baby! I wanted to make this longer but stopping here felt right so I did. Look for more soon. (well hopefully)  
  
TROY ROCKED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 


	56. Isilme, the Moonlit Reunion

A/N- Thanks to astute reviewers I realized that Arod was accidentally in two places at once! Oh my! Well I will be fixing that with small edits to previous chapters, be sure to check them out.  
  
Though I think you might all be a little preoccupied with this chapter...myschievous smile  
  
Chapter 56- Isilme, the Moonlit Reunion  
  
Du-amrun was struggling slightly, she had never birthed a foal before and like any new mother she was anxious, unsure, and frightened not only for herself but for her babe. Leyadriel sympathized, she never left the animal's side and never faltered in caring for her: she sang gently and massaged her with warm, soothing oils and wove her a garland of the same baby-flowers Leyadriel had braided into her tail so long ago. When the horse sweated she would use a cool clothe and wipe her down, her maternal instincts reaching out like a tangible thing and enveloping the mare.  
  
Leyadriel's little boy kept kicking at her stomach, almost as though he wanted to be part of the excitement, his mother spent the better part of an hour assuring him that he would hardly be forgotten. Eventually Leyadriel had to tell him that he was being selfish, after all he was not birthing a foal and he had to be quiet for a time and he begrudgingly hushed.  
  
Poor Du-amrun, her eyes were pained and frightened and Leyadriel could do little besides coo to her, "Do not worry, my old girl, my old friend, all the pain that you are going through will be forgotten once this is over and you have a foal to care for. The pain is such a small price for a life. Think of it! The fruit of your love, Arod's and yours. Something of his you can keep even when he's gone. A commemoration of your time together."  
  
This seemed to hearten the mare and she labored with a second wind. Throughout the birthing Du-amrun seemed to fatigue more often then was well, the mare was not very old but perhaps....perhaps too old for her first foal. Leyadriel did not linger on this thought and hoped that she was wrong about it.  
  
It took hours until the foal began to enter Middle Earth and Leyadriel was there all the while, cooing, comforting, encouraging and being the best midwife she could be when it was necessary. Occasionally food was brought but Leyadriel had little appetite being as excited as she was and as nervous as she was for her mare....and she was not alone in those concerns. The stable hands had locked Arod in a separate stable when the foal began coming and he had pined for them so badly that he nearly tore down the door, but when Leyadriel allowed him to be part of the birthing he mellowed out dramatically. Du-amrun would bite him sharply during especially bad contractions as punishment for putting her through this pain and he would take the brutality and sometimes looked at Leyadriel pitifully.  
  
She petted her mare with a cool damp rag and whispered, "I know it hurts but at least you're not suffering through this alone.....at least he's here with you. At least he never left." Ah yes, that was her fear, that was the one thought that had slammed itself into her heart how many times? That she would break water and bleed and labor and deliver forth this life and would be alone in the process...that she was truly alone now. Even her child was going to be mortal, Leyadriel was the last of the Eldar left on these Shores. And it was going to stay that way, forever. It hurt her to think of the agony of an eternity alone, she hoped the pain would numb and fade for if it didn't she surely would.  
  
Momentary pain shot through Leyadriel and her son seemed to regard it curiously, what had so upset his mother? She avoided his inquiries with the arrival of the foal which was breaching its mother and entering the world. The bloody sack containing the baby slowly emerged and fell to the ground.  
  
Du-amrun strained herself to see the babe, she was exhausted and even Arod's strength beside her did little or nothing to gift her with another wind. She neighed half hearted and merely strained her neck off of the ground, her eyes on only one thing: her newborn.  
  
Arod leaned down to his squirming baby and nibbled off the sack it was fighting to get out of. He began to lick it clean and wouldn't have stopped if Du-amrun hadn't whinnied angrily. Leyadriel could see her thoughts, she wanted to see her baby, wanted to touch it and clean it and claim it. The Lady of the Light picked up the blood covered kicking foal and delivered it to its mother, who helped her stallion clean off his scion. Together, they finished quickly and soon the babe was looking about its new environment cautiously. It eyed Leyadriel in a wary way, she was here and the two parents did nothing to hurt her so she couldn't be a threat....but she wasn't a horse and it didn't know what to make of her.  
  
The princess held out her hands to the baby who sniffed them and nuzzled into them. Then it licked them, sealing its approval for her presence. Leyadriel thought the babe trusted her enough that she could lift its tail and see what it was, she was dying of curiosity. She leaned over the babe, her bulk making that more difficult then it used to be, and her movement made the foal uneasy, it shifted its weight and attempted to stand which only resulted in it falling. It would stand soon, of course, it was only natural but it still seemed a bit early. The babe had barely taken two breathes. The foal tried to stand and since Leyadriel was holding up its short tail it managed to stand for a moment and revealed the one thing Leyadriel was looking for.  
  
Then she released the tail and turned to Du-amrun and Arod who were watching the foal with a mixture of adoration and curiosity. This was their first and they were unused to the eccentricity of a baby's movements and motives. The baby was still trying to stand up and it kept falling, it was still damp from birth and it's legs were still shaky from the long period of disuse in its mother's belly.  
  
"My friend, you have the most stubborn daughter... she certainly is Arod's." Leyadriel quipped and Arod nipped her gently. She nudged him back and they watched as the filly finally got her bearings and stood. Du-amrun did as well at the time, for her daughter would need to feed and the beautiful girl walked over to her mother and father proud at her accomplishment, though no so much as they were.  
  
She was a beautiful filly, pure white body and mane with grey spots on her rump and one grey orb on her nose. It looked like a full moon and in the moonlight which had begun to filter into the barn, the filly glowed.  
  
She needed a name, Leyadriel realized. She needed a name as all babies needed one.  
  
"Isilme." She whispered, more to herself then anyone, it meant "Moonlight" and it certainly fit the babe's description.  
  
"Isilme!" She said a little louder and with feeling and the filly stopped feeding and regarded her with large dark eyes. It was an old superstition that the horse always picked the name they liked best and so Leyadriel smiled smugly and petted the baby's body, "Good girl......such a beautiful girl. Such a very beautiful girl."  
  
"Indeed. A beauty to recall, but not such as that which stands before her. You were ever the beauty, pen mir. {Little jewel}"  
  
Leyadriel froze in her place, her heart stopped and her breathing ceased and then her pulse began to race. In what? Hatred? Anger certainly and disgust. And hurt and pain.....in betrayal.  
  
Arod looked up and whinnied over Leyadriel's stiff shoulder and then motioned his nose at the white filly, Du-amrun was too tired to speak, her eyes had never left her baby.  
  
"Will you say nothing to me, my lady?" The voice she had heard a thousand times in life and more then that in dreams, the voice that haunted her nightmares, never before had it shaken, never before had it sounded so unsure. She couldn't believe she was hearing it now, after all this time. After everything that had happened. It couldn't be it just couldn't.  
  
Slowly, very slowly, she turned her head, tears glistening behind her eyes with all the emotion his voice had brought. It used to be so beautiful to her....now it was beautiful but in a much darker, morbid way. She heard her near death in that voice, singing her near-fate, taunting her love, betraying her loyalty and mocking her devotion. Mocking her. That voice was mocking her.  
  
In the doorway to the barn he was outlined by the silver moonlight, his travel clothes were plain and ragged and dirty and yet he glistened like a gem. His flaxen hair was slick with sweat and dirt but yet it was fresh golden rays of sun in the midst of the night.  
  
His eyes.....his eyes were like a velvet ocean that encompassed her as she gazed into them. It felt like the spring had erupted after a long harsh winter. Mandos Halls were not so welcoming and hopeful as those eyes.  
  
He bowed his head at her gaze and she turned her body, she was in perfect profile now but she offered no bow nor curtsey. Just a cold gaze and a frigid voice.  
  
"You have long been gone from these lands, Prince of Mirkwood, and left not so nobly. Why come you here now with pretty words? Do you hope to erase time?"  
  
His eyes settled on her bulged out stomach and a great mixture of hope and despair wrote itself on his face, "Nay, my lady, I know better. Time gone by is a thing that one cannot change. It is the time to come we must live to remedy."  
  
She swept a delicate hand over the sweeping shape of her child, she had wanted greatly once, in the middle of a lonely night, to wreak her revenge on Legolas with her son, it was something that they had both wanted, something he had wanted badly and a topic that had once caused them grief: her ability and morality with the bearing of children.  
  
"The babe's father learned that lesson a more difficult way. He wanted to undo what was done in me, to fix a flaw."  
  
Legolas' face fell and he looked away, "Only a fool finds a flaw in a masterpiece." His voice nearly broke, "Where is he now? The father?"  
  
"Pengwaith," Leyadriel hissed the name and paused watching its effect on Legolas, "is under guard, a prisoner of my home."  
  
Legolas tried to cross over to Leyadriel but she held up her hand, "Take on step closer and I will have my men come and bind you, they shall put you in a cell far away from sun or moon."  
  
This was a threat to make most elves shiver for none of the earth-folk could bare to wake and not find sun nor moon near but Legolas fell to his knees, "I have been in such a prison these past months. And while I was incarcerated they starved me of food and water and air, they starved my body of blood and I nearly passed from this world and all its darkness and despair. I long lived in that which burned me worse then any flame could try to, I long lasted in a place between death and life, between sleep and wakefulness, where all that I love is at an arms length that never grew closer nor more distant, only more clear as I myself approached. And now I have broken free of my bonds, and just now have breathed freely for the first time in eternity, it seems. My blood flows and my belly is full and ..... and yet in your eyes I am a prisoner still. My heart has life in it but it does not beat. It sees you but you will not comfort it so it remains still. I have food but it's no taste and the water itself seems stale..." He looked at her eyes with tears unabashedly falling from his own, "I have come back for you, heart of my heart, life of my life, and if you will not have me in your arms then you shall have me in your ground!"  
  
Leyadriel's face was impassive and cold, "You have betrayed me, Prince of Hearts, and I'll not be made a fool of again."  
  
She walked passed him and carried her burden to the door where she heard him beg. It was the last thing she ever expected to see the proud Prince of the Mirkwood do, but Legolas of the Nine was on his knees and his hands were thrown out to her, his arms open and pleading as his eyes, "My lady, please, I have proof that I committed no treachery. I was abducted and brought from this place against my will."  
  
"YOU LEFT ME AND RODE FORTH FROM THESE LANDS WITH MY SISTER!" A weigh suddenly flew from Leyadriel's breast where it had been laying since that dreadful night she had awakened alone.  
  
"It was your sister who raped me and carried my unconscious body forth as her prize. Her lies were so elaborate that my own father believed them and betrayed me almost at the cost of your life. I have brought Elaren back for punishment at your hands, she is the one to blame for our discontent, please do not blame me."  
  
"Do you think me so much a fool? If she had raped you, you would be dead."  
  
"Until I came here this night I was dead."  
  
She wished she could argue that but until she had seen him this night, she had been dead too.  
  
A/N- So, you allll love me and it was worth the wait?????/ I hope so. I really hope so. Sorry it took me so long. I'm.........well I have no excuse but damn I wanted it to be perfect and I think I'm pleased. And I fized the chapter before this with Arod. The others are on the hold for now.  
  
PLEASE REVIEW!!!! 


	57. Facing Demons

A/N- Glad we all enjoyed the last chapter, I want you to know that this chapter was started immediately after I finished the last in hopes that I wouldn't procrastinate and wait 6 months to update.....we can only hope. So, that was the reunion....not mushy, not gushy just F You! You left me for my sister! Legowhimper But I love you.  
  
Lol. So on to the rest of the story! And also....KING ARTHUR ROCKS MY SOCKS! Yeah ok I love the Legend a WHOLE LOT MORE but the eye candy in that movie was like woah! I was panting by the end. Lol, see it for the men! And then write good fanfiction so I have something to read in my spare time.  
  
Going to Ohio for a while......hope everything remains intact in Jersey while I'm gone.  
  
Chapter 57- Facing Demons  
  
She didn't want to close her eyes but it was unavoidable. She had gone to her room and cried for hours, everything that had ever happened in her entire life seemed to crash down on her, everything felt wrong and hurtful and she wished she could lock the world away, or herself from it.  
  
But that was impossible.  
  
Those in places of power must live life in the public and for the public and Leyadriel had challenged the patience and pity of the people enough. She was a good queen for elves, who needed a symbol of power to support them but were happy to be left to their own devices, but the humans were like children, they mewled and cried and begged and needed a parent to constantly nurture them. Leyadriel had withdrawn from being their mother and had left more and more of her duties on the shoulders of her brother's betrothed, a servant girl with an open heart that had quickly won the peoples' affection.  
  
And Eldarion's....well, Leyadriel suspected that she was not the only breeding woman in the Palace of Telcontar.  
  
In her room, as she beat her pillows, she cried for the siblings she had scarcely spoken to, scarcely acknowledged in her own pain. She was their oldest sister, only a little younger then Eldarion, and was supposed to take care of them. But she ignored them, she had been selfish and had bathed in self-pity for so long that her family had crumbled around her.  
  
Her world had crumbled around her.  
  
And she hated him for doing that....hated him, loathed him and yet......as she turned her back on him in the stables her heart fluttered. She had seen his face, for only a short time but she had seen him, spoken to him. He had come back for her.....love had never been an easy burden for her. Always something cut the pleasure so that it was lined with pain. Even now she longed to hold him and have him comfort her and yet she wished to kill him, to torture him as his absence and thoughtlessness had tortured her.  
  
But perhaps it wasn't his fault, as he claimed.  
  
Flashback  
  
She rushed into the palace as quickly as she could. She was sure she was going to faint, or vomit, or die, and she wished to do so in her own room. Tears were streaming down her cheeks and there were so many different feelings in her heart she could scarcely understand which one had caused her tears. Maybe they all had.  
  
Her bulk made it difficult to run, even walk, or she would have sprinted to her chambers, but alas she had to slowly tread and a servant found her in a panic.  
  
"My lady! My lady! Thank the heavens you're here......Princess Elaren has returned! She was bound like a prisoner! Brought forth by....by your Intended.....my lady he ordered her to the dungeons but....how can we imprison her? This is her home! She is a princess of these lands!"  
  
"Ask my brother, I cannot bear these tidings!"  
  
"I beg pardon, my lady, but Prince Eldarion's Intended wife is ill and he has withdrawn to see her doctors with her, he commanded not to be disturbed but for you to take control this night."  
  
"Why did he not inform me!"  
  
"My lady, he left notices in your chambers."  
  
The chambers she had not seen since this morning and was desperately trying to get to.  
  
"Then ask my sisters!"  
  
The serving man looked to her as though she were mad, "But...but my lady! Lady Silmarwen ventured to Rivendell with the news of Eldarion's engagement."  
  
"I have two other sisters!"  
  
"Galaniel left nearly two months ago to join the Rangers and Lady Celebrene was sent to see Lord Eomer's son, Elfwine, at his coming of age.....my lady did you not know that they are gone?"  
  
Her head was spinning, reeling, the entire world was on an angle.  
  
"Keep the Lady Elaren in chains," Her bitterness for her sister knew no bounds and next to it her sisterly love and loyalty were sickly and weak, "And I would like for Prince Legolas to be found and confined to his room by our guards, I want him under strict lock and key and inform my brother about this mess when he is available."  
  
The man nodded and turned to go but she stopped him, "And please, have news sent to me of my sister-in-law as soon as its available."  
  
He smiled, seemingly to approve, and inside her there was a bubble of agreement. Leyadriel smiled down at her stomach.... "Wait!"  
  
The servant turned, "Yes, my lady?"  
  
"Show me to my brother, please."  
  
If she was going to be a mother she should start acting like a sister. Methion had seen so little of his uncle that he was quite excited about the whole thing, and he was quite curious about this lady that was going to be his aunt. The groom showed her to her mother's old quarters and from inside she heard Eldarion dismiss a doctor. As the man left Leyadriel slipped into the room and heard the muted conversation inside.  
  
"I don't understand, darling, something isn't right with you. Why can't they find it?" Eldarion was pacing furiously, in the time since Leyadriel had last really noticed, he'd grown a beard like their father had had.  
  
"Perhaps it's the food.....maybe it's the weather. Maybe it's something beyond their perception."  
  
"What ever is wrong with you, sister?" Leyadriel cooed and both of them jumped.  
  
Eldarion looked at her as if she were a phantom, "Leyadriel?....What a surprise! What brings you here?"  
  
"I was curious as to my sister-in-law's ailments."  
  
"Queasiness, my stomach rejects all food then I feel ravenous for strange things. It's made me weak, tired.....I know not what is wrong."  
  
A smile lit Leyadriel's face, "Is that all? Why-ever do you look so glum?"  
  
"Leyadriel my betrothed is ill! This is hardly the time for smirking and..."  
  
His sister giggled, "Brother dear, stop!"  
  
"Why do you laugh?!" He truly looked angry and so she sobered, "You've taken such a young-blood to heart that she scarcely knows her own body yet! Though I had expected better of you. Truly, having seen the same situation before....though I suppose you are predisposed to worry about the ones you love best, we all are."  
  
"What do these ramblings mean?"  
  
"Is it possible that she's with child, Eldarion?"  
  
The girl reddened at the question and looked to Eldarion before nodding slightly, "Tis a possibility.....do you truly think that is it?"  
  
"I never saw mother become so ill....nor you." He countered, placing his hands on his love's shoulders, trying to protect her from something he could not fight.  
  
"We have the blood of the Eldar in our veins, the sickness is not so strong with us. But near the end even the Evenstar was humbled by an almost-human birth. Do you not remember her being ill with Galaniel?"  
  
"But the rest of us had taken to the same sort of illness just weeks prior to mother's.... I won't argue this with you sister. Perhaps, hopefully, you are right." He sighed, defeated.  
  
His young bride had mixed feelings behind her eyes, trepidation, fear...hope. Leyadriel empathized with the girl so strongly that she bent over and placed a kiss on both of their cheeks, "I will not burden you further, rest now the both of you."  
  
She walked out calmly from the room, but as soon as the door closed behind her, the burden she had taken from her brother fell heavily upon her shoulders. Servants bearing messages had to be told to wait until morning, servants bearing dinner were told to go in, and then.....the guards.  
  
Between two guards, walking with the slow stride of the hopeless, the condemned, was the shell of an elf who had once been proud and breathtaking.  
  
"My lady, what shall we do with him?"  
  
"Leyadriel—"He began but she cut him off.  
  
"Such informality? I thought you had been raised with better manners." _That's right Leyadriel_, she thought bitterly, _claw at him, hiss at him, hurt him because your foolish and childish and frightened. He has returned, have your prayers not been answered? And even in your darkest hours did you not secretly wish for him? He betrayed you once...only once.  
_  
_Once is too much,_ another voice argued but the first bit back, _It is not enough to condemn him.  
_  
_Murderers are not given second chances!  
_  
_Yes, but he killed nothing except your naivety. You knew Elaren was dangerous, unbalanced. You both thought that her threats were petty, you believed in your arrogance that she would never truly harm you. Are you so bitter to be proven wrong?  
_  
_Yes if this is the price of that misconception!  
_  
"Leyadriel, pen miramin! This is enough! Saes! Listen to my words! I have come all this way back for you, at least listen to my words." {My little jewel. Please} Legolas' voice broke through her thoughts.  
  
She hesitated merely a moment, "Take him to his old chambers and allow him to make himself presentable. Have a bath brought and have his saddle-bags brought in, his clothes aired. When he is ready, bring him to my quarters." She focused her eyes on him, "We have much to discuss, and we shall do it civilly this time."  
  
He nodded, "Diolla lle, Miramin." {Thank you my jewel.}  
  
"Call me not that name, Prince. You have not convinced me of your innocence yet."  
  
"If you were not convinced of it, you would have faded. It is that part of your heart that belongs to me, that knew that our bond was unsullied. That is why you are here, Leyadriel, because you still love me and once you realize that we can be happy again."  
  
"I am here because I chose life. I was drowning in water and grief and blood and chose to pull myself out of it."  
  
"You are not all yourself, anymore, you have not been for years, now. Had I died you would not have pulled yourself through, and had you drowned my corpse would have had water-filled lungs. We are not separate beings, my love, we have long since been one. Do you not see that, now? Is it not clearer then it has ever been?"  
  
"I might be two beings, Legolas, but the other is not you. Tis my son. Your absence proved one thing to me: I am alone."  
  
"Why did you let him near you? Why did you let him abuse you again?!" The rage in Legolas' voice was scarcely contained.  
  
"I _asked_ for his comfort. I went _willing_ to his bed."  
  
Legolas' face was ashen, "A fool twice over, are you?"  
  
She turned to the guards, "Take him away, now, and bring him to me when he's cleaned up!"  
  
He set his feet for a moment, and he was naturally far stronger then the guards, his resistance reminding them that his cooperation was key in their ability to get him to his room without bloodshed, "You would bear _him_ a bastard? He who hurt you, beat you, abused your body and your name, you would bear him a child and _I, _who loved you best... you would not bear me a son? Why? Why?!"  
  
She tried to look away, tried not to answer but inside her, Methion was crazed. This was the elf that had hurt his mother, he recognized him. _But why did he call Methion a bastard? Why did he insult Methion's father? Why did he wish for Methion's mother to bear him a child?_ The babe was confused and began tossing and turning violently in Leyadriel's womb.  
  
She clutched at him and commanded him to cease but his small mind was too frazzled to calm completely. The guards were torn between going to her and holding the prisoner.  
  
"My lady are you well??" They asked, one already offering an arm to steady her.  
  
"The babe does not understand these circumstances, it has set him into a frenzy..."  
  
"Leyadriel," Legolas' voice was gentle now, silky, it moved across her skin and made her look up and meet his eyes, "Why? Just answer me that and we shall discuss the rest later."  
  
"I meant not for it to happen. I chose not. If I could have....I wouldn't have conceived."  
  
Methion's struggles died. Leyadriel felt him withdraw, could almost feel him crying, and she hugged the bulge her baby was and cooed, "Oh, my little darling I'd not give you up for the entire world....my little Methion.....please understand.....I would never give you up."  
  
"Methion...."Legolas whispered and shook his head. Leyadriel sent the guards away with a harsh flick of her wrist and made haste to her private rooms. Methion was still withdrawn and upset and she began crying in frustration and innumerable other emotions. She cried until she had to close her eyes.  
  
End Flashback  
  
Behind her eyes the shadows crept closer and closer. One reached out a hand and stroked a clawed hand over her swollen belly, Methion was panicked, and they both screamed out as the orc drew its claws in deadly lines across her belly. She tried to wake; she wanted to wake now before further harm befell her child. She began screaming for help, screaming to be woken. The orcs were slashing at her face, slashing with their claws at her pale arms as they tried to block the blows from her unborn son.  
  
Finally she woke, screaming and kicking and flailing about.  
  
"Shhhhh!!!!" Arms reached out in the darkness and helped her sit up, gentle hands pressed cold clothes to her wounds. She was terrified that something had gone ill with Methion and was trying to communicate with him......finally he clasped onto her and clung to her. She put all her focus on calming him and he finally stopped panicking.  
  
There were bandages on her arms and compresses on her huge belly.  
  
"Shhhhhhh." The gentlest voice cooed to her, "You should calm the babe."  
  
"I did.....he's better now."  
  
"I knew you were a natural mother."  
  
She realized that it was Legolas who was tending to her and pulled away, keeping the compresses on her stomach and face, "When did you...?"  
  
"Shortly after you fell asleep. I tried to wake you but....you could never be woken by anyone but yourself."  
  
"Part of the curse, I think."  
  
Legolas nodded slowly. His hair was still damp from his bath and his clean clothes glowed on him, he looked at her tenderly and stroked the old scar on her cheek, as he did when she had been a small child insecure about her beauty.  
  
"Part of _you_." He whispered.  
  
He cupped her cheek and tried to draw her close to him but she pulled away and kept him back with a hand on his chest.  
  
"Tell me everything. You tell me your story, and we shall see what happens."  
  
He took her hand from its place on his chest and kissed it, then drew a breath and began.  
  
As he drew in a breath, Leyadriel released one.  
  
Tonight she had faced more then one demon.  
  
A/N- Ok, so this Saturday night I leave for Ohio and I'll be gone like....a week. But when I get back I start right up on this. Maybe a king Arthur fic, maybe not. I'm dead tired, like **_dead_** tired.  
  
Someone please write decent fanfiction for King Arthur involving Tristan, Gawaine and Lancelot that's not slash, marysue or AU (I consider AU to be a changing of the movie, a continuation post- end of the movie is fine). I mean, I'm ok with slash but.........well......I want them to be straight. Cause they're really hot. If someone does that for me I'll pop out the next chapter for this fic in a week and a half! Two weeks tops!  
  
Also: other fics to be updated....I'm working on gaining full custody of a co- fic and re-doing it so look for that. (The other girl kinda killed what I had in mind for it)  
  
**HOPE YOU LIKED THE CHAPTER, PLEASE REVIEW.**


	58. The Unsullied Bond

_A/N- Okay...so I'm trying not to update slowly but do you really want the story to end fast?  
  
None of you are giving my good King Arthur fics, lol, sob!  
  
My buddy Bruccy persuaded me to make this scene really good, so if you like it you have her to thank.  
  
Chapter 58- The Unsullied Bond_  
  
Legolas gave Leyadriel one long look, silently asking her if she had recovered enough from her injuries, he glanced over her again when she nodded, making absolutely sure she wasn't lying to him.  
  
All the time they had been separated he had thought of dramatic speeches that he would perform for her after gushing out his true and undying love and unending devotion for her. He had thought that she might run back into his arms and beg him to never leave her again. A thousand and one scenarios had played in his mind.... But never the one that had occurred. He had never believed, never wanted to believe that she honestly thought that he had abandoned her.  
  
Was she so great a fool? Elves love but once, only once in their lifetimes do their hearts feel that twin sensation, both pleasure and pain. Once that love has come it never leaves. He was incapable of loving another woman or another elf. His heart only ever yearned for her, that was the gift and curse of the Eldar. Eternal life bound to eternal love, he should have remembered that it is sometimes the most bittersweet blessing. His own father had suffered it, when Legolas' mother had died. Elvish hearts need their mate to survive, without their other half they simply cease to beat, as effective as running a blade into the organ. Thranduil had adored his wife and her passing had sent him into a frenzy, mostly a drunken frenzy. The old king had been eccentric before her death... but after it he was completely mad for a time, stuck between barely living, not caring if he died because he would find his wife again and be reborn with her perhaps or at least, he could feel her spirit next to his for the everlasting night that is beyond death. But then, who would look after their children? Who would care for their beloved babes? Would he leave them orphaned? Certainly not, but how could he be expected to look at their faces, see his wife so clearly and not feel the grief of her passing as potently as ever?  
  
Legolas had been raised underground, a strange fate by elvish standards for most elves held an allergy to the underground but Legolas' father had moved them beneath the earth where nothing could attempt to bring light into his world: forever dark now that he lived in it alone. Legolas should have recalled that elvish love has its drawbacks as well.  
  
The most important of those was that only elves truly understood it.  
  
And the one he loved was not yet a full elf.  
  
Leyadriel was born of the Highest blood of the Eldar, of blood that was wise and beautiful, loving and powerful. From the moment of her birth she was destined to be as monumental a figure to the elves as her mother and father, grandmother and grandfather and so and so forth all the way back to the legendary Luthien.  
  
And though her ears drew into tips, though her manner, her voice, her eyes and face were all elvish fair she was still her father's daughter and no matter that Aragorn was of Numenor blood, he was still merely mortal. And the humanity in his eldest daughter's blood, however small, was still there.  
  
Legolas should have remembered how young she was, how naïve. Leyadriel had always wanted to be older, wanted to be wiser, more respected and stronger. But she would crumble under the weight of her burdens. Her attempts to mature had led her to a destructive and violent adult relationship when she was young and unsullied. Her attempts to prove her own strength led her to an army where she drank herself into a stupor and, although she fought and passing well, she was no outstanding soldier beyond the practice field where no one truly sought to hurt her. Leyadriel had not done so well when she was forced to kill in hand to hand combat and preferred to kill at a distance with arrows or throwing short-swords or small battle axes. These were distinctively human traits about her, for elves had never seen the short swords or battle axes, they fought with three weapons: bows, long swords and daggers and the latter two they seldom threw, it was too crude a method for their tastes.  
  
And Leyadriel had tried to be the great leader of elves that Galadriel had been... and where had her reign led? To an adulterous elf-prince who scandalized the whole of the kingdom by leaving his betrothed the night of their engagement? To betray her loyalty to her true love, no matter his current state, and take another lover and beget a child with him. A crime bordering on treason in elvish minds, false love, false hope. Announce an engagement to this man and then break it before completely disappearing from the public eye. Even disappearing from her own family except when she needed to be cared for and petted and comforted. She wanted to be strong and yet always wound up the victim. Always the victim since the night a scar was drawn down her face.  
  
She was being beyond selfish, beyond brainless. She hadn't died and she couldn't see that that was _because_ they're bond was true, strong, deep and most importantly: unsullied. Neither had broken it for if they had the other would have felt the wrench of half of their heart being pulled from their body. She was not the only one she pulled from her would-be watery grave. She was too human to see: if he had betrayed her then she would have died from the heartbreak of it, _died._ Not lived, not even a tortured life.  
  
She was more human now than he had ever known her to be, jealousy was not an elvish trait and neither was betrayal. That is why the Eldar had scarce believed her when she told them that her prince disappeared. That is why many had sailed, to escape her rule, to go back to Galadriel's _wise_ kin in the West, away from the foolish girl-child with a family name and a crown.  
  
She was part human, and forgetting that part was his mistake. He should have realized that his return would be made rough by that part of her that wanted to believe that it was his fault, his choice, his conscious decision to leave her. And blame his flaw on herself. And then wish to be told that it was not so.  
  
Such was the human way....and sadly he could do nothing to change it in her until they were fully bound and far away from Middle Earth, where humanity in all its glory and grimness could no longer whisper in her ear.  
  
All these thoughts sped through his mind as he regarded her. She was playing the victim even now, withdrawing from him because he had "hurt" her, he had saved her. More then once. He was the last being she should withdraw from.  
  
And yet she moved further away from him and drew blankets around her, to cover herself, and arrogantly waved her hand, inviting him to begin his tale.  
  
He inhaled deeply and told her the truth, as horrible as it was, "You will not wish to believe me, I think. You have made it too obvious that you have long had your heart set on making he out to be the cad. I tell you now, the night of our engagement I fell into a deeper dream then other nights, I heard not Elaren's entrance, and heard not your exit from the room. Elaren believed that elvish bindings could be accomplished on one person's whim," He paused to shake his head at her great foolishness, the foolishness that had brought him this horrible, festering wound that may never heal.  
  
"We are not _human_." Leyadriel commented disgustedly and in Legolas' mind he sighed, he wanted to remind her that she was not fully _elvish_ either but refrained.  
  
"I was bound, and by the time I was fully conscious of it, my mind was slipping deeper and deeper with the hurt of it. I was little more then dead weight until many months later when my father's voice pulled me from the shadows. I woke and he and my brother explained to me that my _love_," Legolas spat the word, clearly indicating the error of title, "was aboard and worried for me. That I had been raped and had nearly faded from the world. But I did not even know why they were there or why they insisted that it was _my _ship. I had wanted a ship for many years and had made plans to build one but none had even reached paper. My father thought my memory had been lost to me in my long fight against death and told me that I'd been writing to him, that my _love_ had been writing to him, for a time and we had all arranged a boat to be built, and would all meet to sail out to the Undying Lands. She had told my father that because she was human she may not be allowed into the lands, that if there were many Elf Royals in her ship she may be allowed passage and so my family came. I was beyond puzzled; I asked my brother why Arwen's daughter and Galadriel's heir would have difficulty reaching Valinor? I asked why my Leyadriel would even fear to be rejected and called him a liar...but his reaction to your name was venomous.  
  
"Elaren had poisoned their minds against you, told them that you were the squealing babe hanging off of my leg begging for my affections. She told them that you had raped me. When she came in to see me she was so shocked when I tried to choke her, not the most proper treatment a _loving_ husband to give his wife she thought. She believed that by 'binding' to me she had made me smitten with her. I made her realize her error, quite harshly and then had to explain the truth to my family. My father then grieved to tell me that he thought you dead by his own command, that you had come after the ship and he had told the archers to protect Elaren, who commanded them to shoot you dead. He saw you sink beneath bloody water and believed that Anduin had buried you. But I knew you lived; I knew that I would be dead if you had died and made it known that I intended to come back for you. Elaren was....traumatized when the reality of things finally struck her.  
  
"She attempted to kill herself, we arrived in Valinor in time to save her. Only to bring her back here where I trust her traitorous actions will be punished with death. I would have killed her myself, I'd not have left her to die by her own hand for there is no mercy in letting the madness of trauma steal a victory away from the true victim," He almost cringed, he was making her the victim again. Perhaps life held little more then irony, "Only you have the right to pass the final judgment on your sister, for all that she has done has been to hurt you and gain me. My punishment has been passed; I broke her from her reverie and forced her into a cold, cruel light. How long she remains in that light I leave to you."  
  
"You seem over-certain that I believe you." Her tone was even, with no emotion.  
  
"I do not understand how you could not. It is the only path that makes sense, the only true one to travel."  
  
Leyadriel bowed her head, her cheeks flushed with embarrassment, "I truly thought..... she was always my little sister. Annoying.....arrogant.....but never _harmful_. I did not think it would truly come to that, all our rivalries for our father's love and our elvish heritage..."  
  
She looked up at him then, her face suddenly went blank, "But I was always the fool, wasn't I? I thought she was but...it was I who always took the wrong path to the right place. I meant for good but tried to get there ill ways....Elbereth Gilthoniel!" Shock paled her features, "Have I always been this shallow? This naïve and demanding? Dearest Elbereth, pray tell me that I have not always been so great a fool!"  
  
_Ah, at long last she sees_. Legolas thought and smiled at it all, though he said not a word. He had always let her, nay, he had always _encouraged_ her to be as she was. He fancied himself a protector and so he remained.  
  
Now he would protect her from the part of herself that shielded her from the truth about herself.  
  
For the better part of three hours they remained there, still and silent, Legolas feeling the relief that some things looked to be shakily restoring themselves to their right way and Leyadriel feeling the sharpness of everything. She had been telling him of Elaren when it all struck her.  
  
She blamed sisterly love for her blindness to Elaren, why couldn't she just admit that she was too proud? Too arrogant? She thought that Elaren would not dare challenge _Leyadriel_, Leyadriel the elf-child, Leyadriel the haunted, the plagued, Leyadriel the _Queen_. She thought Elaren a lowly fly buzzed around her head to be swatted at and cursed at but never truly feared. And thus had she nearly lost all that she loved.  
  
She had always been that arrogant. That proud. It was in her blood...or perhaps just her. Pengwaith had hurt her the first time because he was too dim to know better, and the second time she had thought that he feared her "power". She never truly had power, she realized. She could have had it, but she had not used it properly and then had neglected it completely and like other talents that go waste it was gone from her now. Like needles left too long unattended she would forget the patterns and the motions until her once skill would fall into mere memory and then be lost.  
  
She realized this now...._She_ was the fool, the traitor. _She _was the one who should be begging Legolas to take her back. _She_ was one who had been hurt but also...also she had done much to hurt others. Even if she hadn't meant to it had happened as a direct result of her conceitedness.  
  
"Can you forgive me, my Lord?" She whispered at long last.  
  
Legolas gave a small smile and a shake of his head, "Leyadriel, say what I want you to say."  
  
She averted her eyes and her cheeks raged in a blush, "Amin hiraetha, coramin, ikotane hiraetha. Saes.....saes hiraetha-amin." (I'm sorry, my heart, so sorry. Please.....please, forgive me."  
  
Leyadriel buried her head in her hands but Legolas reached out and pried them from it, delicately dropping something in her shaking palms. A ring of golden leaves with one a brilliant emerald, "A Greenleaf." He whispered.  
  
"Just like you."  
  
"And you." Her eyes were big and hopeful and he leaned forward, "It's rightful place is on your finger, as your rightful place is in my arms."  
  
He captured her lips softly, gently and both of their souls wept at the reunion. Their hearts raced together perfectly in sync with the other's movement, their pulses singing the same song at once.  
  
The most perfect reunion.....the unsullied bond between them radiated around them, from them, _through them_. Had anyone been watching they would have shielded their eyes at love, simply, pure and immaculate, finally realized for its worth, finally accepted.  
  
As Leyadriel pulled away from her love, there came a dull pain to her heart. The last time she had been this happy, this elated, Elaren had robbed her of it in the dead of the night. The child that she had once played in the sunlight with had betrayed her....now the only sunlight that reached Elaren would cast shadows of prison bars on her face.  
  
And yet Leyadriel knew she would have to be there for Elaren's punishment. She could order the death blow, and that it would be, and turn her back but she would not. She would face this last demon as she had faced the others.  
  
The Next Chapter: (tentatively) The Death Blow

A/N-Okay....so Bruccy wanted me to have the scene where Le and Elaren finally go head to head but that's next,,,,maybe.,,,,I might do something else in between but I;m anxious for it too.  
  
What did y'all think? I like it. But then again its 2:30 in the morning....there's a lot of crap I like at 2;30 in the morning. I really hope that it was proper....her being a spoiled brat and a bitch had to eventually come out, I wasn't going to over look it. And Lego....well he's a happy boy again.  
  
Where's my King Arthur fics all you evil people? Just playin, take ur time.  
  
**Note to readers: The ficcy is almost over.....sob! Where will we go from here? Will you loyally follow me into other Legomances? I hope so, you're a nice bunch.**  
  
Nighty night  
  
blue eyes


	59. Cells and Shadows

A/N- Sorry ladies I have had a bad virus or something on my computer since the first week of September. I couldn't get on the internet at all, then I could but I couldn't get on any websites, then I couldn't get on at all again. Then I could still go on Word to do my homework......then I couldn't do that because the printers became uninstalled and my father is convinced that while on the internet I pressed a little button that said "download virus now please" and knowingly downloaded the friggin thing. So I am sorry it's been so long since I last updated, it was by no fault of mine. I did try to make it sooner.

Chapter 58- Cells and Shadows

They had locked her away....locked her away like an animal. Though she hadn't truly expected to be treated well, it would've shocked her more to be treated according to her stature in the Telcontar home. She hadn't been fed in a few days, at least nothing more then the elvish way-bread that Legolas had given her a part of and stale water. The way-bread was filling but it was months since she sat down at a nice table and had a meal set before her. Or so it seemed. They allowed her water in the cell at least. They gave her two bowls. Washing and drinking. And she utilized both, though they probably weren't of different quality from each other.

Fear was like a spider in the pit of her stomach, antsy, and beginning to weave an intricate web. She was thinking, thinking harder and faster then she'd ever thought. She couldn't rely on mercy; she would have to rely on cunning. It was of the utmost import that Leyadriel take her out of her cell....if her sister gave her an inch she'd stretch it a mile.

She ran her fingers over the surface of the bowls. They had no metal, it was normal for something given to prisoners, but the ceramic was strong....and she thought perhaps sharp. Sharp enough to give her an advantage. She threw one of the bowls down and as the guards came she said she had dropped it accidentally and bent to help them pick it up, furiously apologizing under her breath. She saw one long jagged piece and quickly hid it in her ragged dress. The guards helping to clean up the ceramic, hadn't left the door open.

Ah, she thought, _half_ an inch.

_----_

Leyadriel put an arm around her stomach and grimaced. Methion was still quite upset with her and wreaked his revenge by kicking her and, so it seemed, pulling at her intestines like harp strings. She wanted to sit down, wanted to relax a moment.

_Shhhhh, baby. _She cooed, _Shhhhhh_.

She hadn't hid her grimace well enough for Legolas' eyes, he put an arm around her, "Mani naa ta?" (What is it?)

"Methion...he's still upset with me. It feels like he's destroying my insides."

The elf's eyes darkened, "I feel badly for you both."

Leyadriel didn't know how he had meant that, "I feel badly for _him_, I deserved much of what I received."

Legolas was going to argue the point, but found he couldn't. Yes, there were things that she needed to be punished for, though he did not see why the gods believed that a child was a fair punishment. It seemed harsh to ruin two lives.

The prince sighed and placed a hand over her womb, he focused energy on the babe but it was hard to send much to it.

_Because it's not my babe._

It was the way of elves, that during the first year of the child's life, the year that took place inside its mother, that the father contribute something to the early growth of the child. But human fathers had no part in this, something he had always pitied them, for his friends with elflings had always told him that that part of the pregnancy, that intimacy with the being they had created, had surpassed all experiences in their life before. He had always wanted that, always envied them that. Always.

_----_

There was one guard in her cell now; the other had gone outside to fetch a replacement bowl for her. One guard. Who didn't know she was armed...who was not expecting her to attack him.

She remembered her father suddenly; she heard his voice in her ears. He had loved all his daughters, worried for all of them and if he spent an hour teaching Eldarion the fine art of war, he spent another hour teaching them defense. With Elaren and Silmarwen, the teachings went little further then the basics. Then he had Leyadriel and Galaniel who were like second and third sons to him. But Elaren swallowed her jealousy at that, and instead concentrated wholly on her own lessons.

"_One thing who must always know in combat is what you are trying to do. Are you trying to run away? Are you trying to injure your opponent? Are you trying to kill them?" Aragorn's words hardly seemed fit for the audience of four young girls before him. _

_Within the hour he had armed them all with wooden practice swords, and even then he'd had to cut the 'blades' short so that his little girls could pick them up easily. Elaren and Silmarwen struggled the most and while Galaniel and Leyadriel were rolling around in the mud in a mock duel, Aragorn had to hold his younger girls' hands and at one point took Elaren's hand as it was clasped against the worn in handle of her play sword and pointed it right at her sister's jugular._

"_There is a death blow," He moved the blade so that it hovered above Silmarwen's collarbone, "There is a very painful injury."_

_Then he loosed Elaren's grip and turned the blade in her hand so that the handle was facing her sister and he made a swiping motion toward her temples, "That will slow your enemy, enough so that you can run from them. You must always try to run first, injure second, and only when all your other means are gone from you should you kill."_

Elaren shook her head at the memory and looked around her cell, here she was all means taken from her in the world. Except two: her own hands.

She gripped the ceramic shard so hard that it made her palm bleed but she did not feel the sting, she could only see the beefy throat of the guard, pale at first then covered in red. He had not even cried out, he'd not seen her coming up from behind him. Elaren knew there was one more guard, and if she should escape with him yet alive he could sound the alarm and the element of surprise, crucial to her success, would be lost to her. He, too, would need to die.

Looking all around for some way to catch him unawares, looking at the stone walls of her cell as if they would whisper solutions to her she suddenly looked down at her bleeding hand and a demon grin spread across her face. Conjuring up tears like wizard's conjured images from the Palantir, she sobbed loudly, "My hand! Oh the pain! Please! Please, sir, I've hurt my hand!"

The guard came running, slightly distressed by her cry. But as soon as he was within her reach she slid her makeshift weapon from ear to ear, making an almost comical red grin on his face.

She reached down and took the keys from his belt, she preceded to walk straight out and into the hall, craning her neck, searching for witnesses, she slowly crept up the stairs.

Elaren had been given her inch.

_----_

Methion's grief, his sense of betrayal, had stuck a cord deep in his mother's heart. She had suffered at the hands of those masters and would not wish it on Elaren, much less on her own unborn son. But the baby tossed and turned inside her, his actions becoming more and more violent.

Then a scream tore from deep in her throat. "Daro, Methion! Daro!" (Stop!)

She was clutching her engorged stomach with both arms and the twist of pain in her face was more then Legolas could cope with....surely the babe couldn't continue his hostility long?

The prince longed to help Leyadriel, he longed to quiet the babe inside her but it was beyond his power to do so. He was thinking of ways to try and soothe the child that he had not already employed when it happened.

A gasp of shock came from behind him where Leyadriel had been writhing on the bed. Between her legs a pool of water was soaking into the sheets, blood was trickling down her thighs.

Ai Elbereth! The child! What was wrong with the child?

He ran to the door and stuck his head out, and shouted for the nearest maid to fetch the midwife and be quick about it, that Princess Leyadriel's water had broken and she was in need of immediate assistance. The girl looked at him oddly, as though not comprehending what he had said. He must've spoken in elvish, he realized and quickly snapped, "Fetch the midwife for your princess! Hurry!"

The girl dropped the basket of linens she had been carrying and sped off crying out a name that Legolas did not recognize.

Meanwhile he went back to Leyadriel who was breathing deeply and beginning to sweat.

"Methion......something's.......wrong......" Those were the only words she could share with him as her body quivered, her muscles shook in an ancient dance that was beyond either of them to comprehend fully.

Leyadriel had trusted her body throughout her pregnancy, had trusted that child-bearing was an older art then she could imagine, and as arrogant as she was she did not fancy that she could control her bodies' reaction to the babe. She allowed nature to take its course, and all the time things had gone smoothly....and now every fiber in her was screaming that something was terribly, terribly wrong.

----

Elaren crept along the shadows, light footed but swiftly. She was still armed with her shard and every sense was humming with alertness, she was quite jumpy and quite frightened, but so alive with adrenaline that she couldn't be bothered with cowardice or reason. Especially when the maids came.

"The midwife! The midwife quickly! You must fetch the midwife! The princess is in labor!"

"Princess Leyadriel looked quite ill....something was not right. The Prince looked so terribly worried."

They kept squawking over and over about this and that. But Elaren had heard plenty to interest her....Leyadriel...pregnant? And who might the father be? Surely not the elven prince? But perhaps, the time was close enough, especially if she were in labor.

A militant smile spread over Elaren's face....perhaps she would pay a visit to her dear, beloved sister. Tonight.

----

Leyadriel's thighs were dark with blood, her muscles pained her, her whole body was shaking with the effort of what she was trying to do. Tears fell down her flushed face, tears of pain with a mixture of rage and grief as it became more and more apparent that she was failing at her task.

"I can't......feel him....."She panted. The midwife merely focused on the birthing, ignoring the words that tore out of Leyadriel's lips, "I CAN'T FEEL HIM ANYMORE!!! ELBERETH HELP ME!!!" She roared before her voice sank to a whisper, "I can't feel my baby anymore...."

"You have to push milady!" The old midwife croaked, "Push!"

The scream that was ripped from her throat would scar the ears of those that heard it, it was the epitome of despair, of pain both physical and emotional.

It all happened so fast....too fast. Far too fast. Labor took hours, she knew from her siblings' births. They could take more then a day. Leyadriel's was coming to a close within a few hours. Every fiber in her body told her something was wrong.

_Methion! _"Methion!" She howled, "Methion!"

But no answer came. No answer from her son and it chilled her to her bones.

Behind her eyes the pain exploded like a sunrise, in brilliant shades of orange and red....mostly red. It was too early, too soon....Methion mewled like a sick kitten in the midwife's hands, his too-tiny body flailing uselessly against the cold of this outside world.

For a moment the Queen stretched out her arms, _I was wrong_, she hoped, _Everything is fine, I was wrong, I was overreacting._

"Give him to me." It was a quiet command but the strength behind it was stronger then steel. The midwife looked at the child, knowing an ill secret that she did not know if she should share.

"Milady, he's far too small.....perhaps it best that you not grow attached. He does not have much time."

"Give him to me, now." Leyadriel held out her arms for the child and the midwife held him back still.

"My lady, this was no birth but a glorified miscarriage...."

"GIVE ME MY SON!"

The old woman relented, handing the child over to his mother. Though he was covered in birth fluids and blood, Leyadriel held him tightly against her breast. She wiped fluid away from his mouth and nose and he cried harder in her arms, flailed about harder.

"Shhh, my Methion." She hushed, "Shhh, quiet now."

But he didn't quiet, he fidgeted constantly and his crying gained strength. Leyadriel cupped his head and kissed his brow, "I know I have not been the best of mothers, my little boy, but I am your mother. I do love you, I do want to keep you. If I did not ask for you, I can not imagine not having you."

Methion became silent and regarded his mother with big blue eyes. He reached up a small hand to touch her face, so close to his own. Was it a smile on his face as she kissed his tiny palm and smiled at him, at the new center to her world? Leyadriel thought it was a smile, the babe had smiled at her, forgiven her.

The hand he sent to touch her face fell limp against him. The big blue eyes that watched her became unfocused, half closed.

"Methion?" The question was little more then a grunt, but it escalated into a wail, "_Methion!"_

The midwife quickly came and claimed the babe, and tried as she might to revive the prince, he did not stir. His throne grew cold before it was ever sat in.

Legolas, who had been impatiently pacing outside the room awaiting news, was finally permitted in. Mainly to restrain Leyadriel from going after the midwife who was carrying away the body of a child, little more then a double handful in size. A glorified miscarriage, she had called it. The royal bed looked like a battle field. There was the stench of blood everywhere and it soaked all the sheets, Leyadriel's dress and coated her legs. The Queen was distraught, crying and reaching out for her son. She was still half lying in a pool of after birth and other labor liquids that the Prince cared not to identify.

"He's _gone_." She murmured against his skin as he pulled her close to him, to keep her from thrashing about but also to comfort her.

"I'm so sorry, miramin." (My jewel) He whispered. And say what you like about them, but he meant that, he was sorry that Pengwaith's bastard child had not lived past his first breath, he was sorry for that because Leyadriel had loved her child, and now another thing she loved was dead.

"I can't even function as properly as a horse!" Her tears were gone, her voice was dead, "They should treat me like a lame mare."

Legolas could not find words to respond to her, he held her, he kissed her, he let her deal with what had just occurred.

The shadow crept in from the doorway. Leyadriel's grief filled his ears and that being so he did not hear Elaren. Or perhaps it was because she took every step carefully, knowing that to be heard was death, to be seen was death, to be _smelled_ was death.

She had seen them carry out the babe, her little niece or nephew. She was a little frightened by the baby, its eyes were half open and they stared at her, bore into her soul as the body was carried away. It found her in the shadows and made her feel guilty.

_Don't look at me like that...I'm giving you your mother back. You should be smiling at me._

Elaren smiled at the thought, it made it seem less evil if she was reuniting a mother and child then if she was just murdering her sister in cold blood. But deeds were deeds, despite titles and intentions, one way or another: Leyadriel would die this night.

A/N- Ok, I'm going to end it there. It's been a LONG time in coming: the end is near. Hope to get many many many reviews because this is.....well this was a bitch to write. It was really hard to figure out the imagery to use and the various metaphors. So I hope to get commentary from y'all about it!

Review s'il vous plait!


	60. Duels and Lullabies

A/N I'd like to note that I began writing this mere hours after posting _Cells and Shadows_ because I myself was becoming impatient to read the conclusion. Also, there is some closure here as to Methion's death, which I hope makes sense. I knew that he was going to die since I decided outta the blue that she was going to be pregnant so actually his death didn't bother me. By the way...the numbering of the chapters got messed up somewhere along the way, says this one is 60 but my personal store of chapters has this at number 59. So regardless im calling it 59, if you have issues with that.....im sorry.

Chapter 59- Duels and Lullabies

Leyadriel was sobbing into Legolas' shoulder. _A failure, I'm a failure as a woman, as a mother... my poor child. My little innocent boy, what did you do to deserve death? What did I do to deserve losing you too? _

"He was....just a little thing." She sobbed, "So small....he barely even cried."

"Im ikotane hiraetha miramin, ikotane hiraetha." (I'm so sorry, my jewel, so sorry.) He kissed her forehead and stroked her back, combing his fingers through her long dark hair which was matted with sweat from the labor.

"I wish....I wish it had been me." And she did, for that brief moment, she had wished that she could have sacrificed herself for the sake of her child.

"But where would he have gone without you here?" Legolas whispered, "He is split from all worlds, equally loved and hated by nature of his blood. Even you, my dearest, can not bear to think of his father... if you cannot cope with the burden of his birth who else could have?"

Leyadriel pushed away from Legolas in shock, "Are you implying that it was _just_ for him to die?"

"Never, never is death something to be judged as well or bad. But if you were gone from this world and Methion left in it alone, who would care for him? Pengwaith? The man who raped and beat you and is currently rotting away in a jail cell? Your brother and sisters? Who hate Pengwaith passionately and have lives of their own to live without the burden of your folly? Perhaps they would try to send him to your uncles in the Undying Lands...the son of the Lady of the Light would be accepted by blood but who would care for him there? He would die before they could blink and they would be more offended by his paternity then your siblings. Your son needed you to care for him, needed you to find acceptance in this world, if you were gone he would never be satisfied nor complete. The heir to two thrones, neither of which could ever fully accept him, the bastard seed of a princess' rapist."

Leyadriel froze, "That's a cold analysis. Cruel."

"I meant to erase death wishes from your mind, to give you a pragmatic comfort."

"I do not think _pragmatic_ and _comfort_ can be properly used together." His words had offended her, but they did have cold, cruel logic behind them, logic she had never used before, "Do you....do you truly believe that he would've been as miserable as you say? Would people....his own blood, even, despise him? Are men as close minded as all that? Would they have hated my little boy for his father's flaws and my misjudgment?"

She flung herself onto her pillows with a cry of, "I just don't know!"

Whatever tears she shed were muffled by her pillow and Legolas knew that his words were harshly spoken, heartlessly spoken.

"Im hiraetha, meleth, I spoke carelessly." (I'm sorry, love) He leaned closer to her, stroking her cheek along the fading scar that ran the length of it.

She dried her tears and turned to him, "You did speak harshly....he was just a harmless little thing."

"Yes he was."

"I loved him."

"Im sinta." (I know.)

There was a comfortable silence while he held her, but he was well aware of the unsanitary conditions of her bed at present, soiled as it was, and her dress and body little better....in fact, worse. After a time he lifted her off the bed, intending to carry her to her bathing room to let her ease her muscles, wash her body, and change her dress.

But he never made it to the door, a door that was a mere thirty feet from him.

His arms were busy with their burden, his eyes focused on Leyadriel's pain and his ears heard only her whimpers of grief and pain.

The dagger caught him unawares and it sank into his ribs. He landed on the floor with a muffled cry, half on top of Leyadriel. For once in his long life, he had not seen a blade coming at him. Elaren emerged from the shadows, the picture of fallen grace in her ripped and dirty robes, her hands stained with blood he was sure was not entirely his and her golden hair framing the face of a young girl, driven to impossible measures.

Leyadriel was caught between Legolas' body and a wall and as she managed to wiggle free of his weight, she noticed he was wounded....and staring fixedly at the one who attacked him.

Leyadriel was shocked to see her sister. The Pheidan of Gondorian fame had dropped weight, and instead of the well-fed spoiled girl who had vanished with the Woodland Prince she saw a skeletal girl with eyes that were alight with madness. Her skin had lost its healthy glow and was instead pallid, ghostly and her once beautiful hair was dirty and matted. Leyadriel saw the weapon her sister used; it looked like a shard of something, simply a sharp piece broken off a vase or bowl perhaps. It was not metal, it was not glass, for it held no shine and Leyadriel thought it might be ceramic.

She huddled next to Legolas, less able to defend herself then ever before. She could not move her legs without a pain between them that made her dizzy, she felt as though Methion's birth had ripped her flesh from her very bones. The pain had not been as predominant as her worry for him at the time, but the sensation of child-birth was hitting her harder now. She had lost much blood and felt light-headed from it, her limbs shook if she tried to walk and there was such a sense of fatigue in her body, from her son's birth and his death, she doubted that she could lift a finger to save her own life.

Which was exactly what Elaren was counting on.

Legolas used the wall to help steady his legs beneath him. The warrior in him assessed the situation bleakly. Elaren was armed, they were not; he and Leyadriel, especially Leyadriel, were not at their peak strength, and while he thought that even weakened they were significantly better fighters then she, she had the advantage of having nothing to lose. She was cornered, facing death for treason by the hand of her sister, and it had unhinged her. She would lose her life if she did nothing, and perhaps this rebellion would kill her as surely as poison would have, but at least the rebellion gave her the merest chance of escape.

For the first time since Sauron's defeat, the Prince of Mirkwood feared he was in a battle that he might very well lose.

- - - -

The two elves, injured and cowering against the wall, were surveying her as if she were a trained snake gone bad, her fangs bared, prepared to strike. They knew the power of her venom; they'd both been victim before.

For a renowned warrior the elf prince was not the impressive, intimidating presence she had once both loved and feared. He was thinner, the strength of his muscles gone mostly to seed in his long illness and all the turmoil that was waiting for him when he woke. His slim form no longer stretched against the confines of a tunic but was engulfed by the material. It seemed to her that even his sensitive ears and eyes had lost their acuity; he'd not even seen her strike coming. The blow was hard and well-placed, the wound deep and bleeding freely, it was possibly the only free shot she would get and she had used it well. The prince struggled to stand, using the wall to steady himself before standing before Leyadriel as a living shield between her and harm.

And quite the damsel in distress her beloved sister made. Though she had not seen her sister pregnant she could only assume that Leyadriel had not put on too much extra weight, for her arms and legs were still slim, though her stomach and breasts were quite meatier then Elaren recalled. The ever-beautiful Leyadriel, still perfect even when marred, was no less radiant even after a difficult child birth. Her hair was mussed; some of it clung to her face from a mixture of sweat and tears. Her legs had blood caked onto them, her eyes were bloodshot and swollen from tears and her whole frame shook with exhaustion. Leyadriel regarded her warily, her shock at the current situation poorly disguised and she probably did not know that when she cowered behind her valiant protector Elaren wanted to giggle joyously.

It had always been Leyadriel, perfect sweet Leyadriel, who was the older, the more intelligent, the braver, the _stronger_.... The reversal of roles was incredibly intoxicating to the younger girl. Not to mention the fact that two elves, the haughty Elder race, the ideal race, were cowering to a mere human with only a shard of a bowl and madness at her disposal.

Rest assured the irony was not lost on Elaren.

- - - -

Leyadriel would never let her sister know it, it would give her a grim satisfaction, but she was frightened. Not because Elaren was there, not because Elaren was armed and Leyadriel was defenseless.

Because Leyadriel had known, in some part of her mind that this duel had been long in coming. Since they were children throwing insults about elvish blood across the breakfast table they were doomed to come to blows. The fights they had had before would all pale to this one. This would be fratricide.

And as she was now, she could very well lose.

Then what would Elaren do? She would probably come to blows with others, possibly Legolas, and what if some miracle occurred and she felled the elf prince...where then would she turn?

To Eldarion and his expectant bride? Perhaps she would hunt down her other sisters.

Leyadriel was not afraid for herself, but immediately feared that once her death had come and gone one of her other siblings would be in mortal danger and would not know it.

She wanted to scream for help, but help might not arrive before Elaren could run away. Elaren was arrogant and disturbed but she was not without her wits and if her life were in grave jeopardy, Leyadriel knew Elaren would employ what knowledge she had to its full use... and who knew the secrets of the Telcontar palace as the scions of Telcontar did?

No, if Elaren left this room, all the inhabitants of the castle were endangered. Leyadriel was almost glad for an excuse not to call the guards.... If she was to die in battle with her sister, then she wanted to die fighting, not waiting for a guard to show up.

Leyadriel straightened her back, had she not seen battle? Had she not dreamed in a more hopeless fight then this?

If her dreams had not yet killed her, perchance neither would Elaren.

With this thought, she pushed her grief and tiredness behind her, she used both her hands to try and stand on her shaking legs. As she fell Legolas quickly turned to catch her.... That was when Elaren attacked.

- - - -

It was more of a battle of wills at this time. No one spoke, no one blinked. Both sides were waiting for the proper moment to strike. They were wordlessly, motionlessly circling each other, waiting for the other to make the first move.

Leyadriel's eyes hardened, her back straightened, and she attempted to stand.

_Come, sister, stand and face me. _

Then her knees buckled and Legolas turned to catch her before she fell. He had turned his back to Elaren....giving her the perfect attack. She drove the makeshift blade into his back and pulled his head back with his hair, baring his throat.

"No!" Leyadriel cried and swiped the blade away, cutting her hand but sparing the prince's throat. Legolas turned on Elaren, bleeding heavily and suffering from her wounds. The blows they exchanged were like an awkward dance, too slow and then too fast, there was no true rhythm. Legolas' injuries and fatigue had sadly brought him onto the same plain of skill as Elaren, especially given the fact that she found with a weapon that she held onto as a lifeline. He did not notice that she had maneuvered him to the open balcony, not until they were outside, and even then he had tunnel-vision seeing only the fight before him. It was not until Elaren pinned him against the rail, her rough shard against his throat again, that he realized he'd been had. There were two options before him: wait for Elaren to kill him or take his chances with the two story fall to the ground.

Knowing this leaned back until he flipped over the railing.

Elaren turned with a morbid grin on her face....now the true duel would begin. And one of the Telcontar daughters would not emerge from it.

- - - -

Leyadriel watched in horror as Legolas fell over the edge, leaving her vulnerable and alone with her sister. Even as she opened her mind to the possibility that she could well die this night, she knew she would meet her sister on this field of battle nonetheless.

The room already smelled of death, the grief of Methion's loss with the desire to die as well only fueled Leyadriel's attempts to quell the shaking in her limbs. She was bracing herself against a nightstand else she knew not if she could stand on her own.

"Only you, Elaren, would attack me now. Only you are coward enough to wait until the enemy is injured so that you can stab them in the back."

"Do not say that about me, sister; I had fully planned to meet you at your height of strength. I did not plan for you to be pregnant, nor for you to miscarry the day of our duel. But that day has come and it is now and it shall be fought regardless of your state."

"You have no heart." Leyadriel hissed, disgusted with Elaren, "A disgrace to your name, a shame on our father's house!"

Elaren could not rebut the claim, for she knew that if Arathorn's son were alive presently, he would sooner kill her then calm her. Such was Aragorn's love for his children, that he would give Elaren then only redemption left to her: in death.

"Perhaps a shame on it but the walls of this house shall tremble this night, sister, as they have never trembled before. In Sauron's shadow they stood bravely and yet on _this night_ they shall quake in fear, in _awe_, of this. And my name shall be next to yours in this eternal tale, the two sisters, one mad with love, one mad with jealousy, finally meet in what can only be called a bastard of true battle. One armed, one half-dead."

Leyadriel shook her head, "You sicken me. You're a monster."

They were circling each other again, circling each other with words. Elaren cocked her head to one side, "_I _am the monster? _I_? I would have left Leyadriel, left this land, this house, this life without ever having crossed your path again. You would have cut my head from my shoulders without even considering the prospect of my freedom! You held my in your arms the day I was born and you would not consider allowing me to live in disgrace with my head upon my shoulders."

Leyadriel lunged forward, a surge of strength propelling her, she pinned her sister to the ground, "I did hold you the day you were born.....and so help me I shall cradle you as tenderly the day you die. I shall bury not only the monster but that fair haired babe whom I loved so dearly and miss so greatly. While you sleep at last given respite from whatever state your mind has brought itself to, I shall have to live the rest of my days knowing I buried the infant I loved before it was ever born. That I buried the happy child that is somewhere inside you, lost, lost forever now the poor, wretched thing."

Elaren threw her sister off of her into the table she had braced herself on; Leyadriel looked up at her weakly. As Elaren approached, her shard posed to strike, Leyadriel threw out her leg, causing Elaren to trip and fall headfirst into the wall. The Pheidan crumbled to the ground, holding a gash on her head. Leyadriel tore the shard from Elaren's hands but she gripped it in the wounded hand, the hand that had spared Legolas' life, and so she hissed and dropped it. It skidded across the room as the two began to wrestle.

Memories flooded Leyadriel. Had they not wrestled like this as children?

Elaren's hands pressed painfully against her throat.

_No, not like this as children...my poor little sister where have you gone?_ This was not her sister, Leyadriel realized. It was not Elaren that had changed over the years, but change had one day taken hostage Elaren.

Leyadriel balled her good hand and struck Elaren sharply between the eyes; there was a faint pop that may have been the girl's nose breaking, perhaps that will never be known. The moment of surprise at the injury was enough for Leyadriel to kick her sister off of her, Elaren slid across the marble floor, slightly, before seeing Leyadriel and getting up, preparing to dive on her.

She could not take Elaren physically, Leyadriel was no fool. The adrenaline that was coursing through her would soon not be enough to numb her body and her mind. The scene before her seemed to freeze, Elaren preparing to jump back onto her, and a few feet to her left the abandoned shard.

Any fool knew what had to be done.

Using what strength she had left in her, Leyadriel half-dove, half-fell, to the left and stretching out her hand she barely caught the shard in it. Elaren was on top of her, clawing and hissing like an animal, realizing that now Leyadriel was armed, and Leyadriel knew better how to wield a weapon then did Elaren.

Perhaps she saw her time ending.

When asked later how it happened, Leyadriel could not have told you. She did not remember striking her sister, nor could she recall Elaren throwing herself on the blade. But at some point their struggle abruptly stopped as the Pheidan pulled away from her sister, her face painted with a mixture of shock and ....acceptance.

The shard was deep in her torso, the blood stained the white marble floor and pooled out around the fallen princess. She fell onto her back, gasping slightly for air, her eyes more frightened now.

"Elaren?" Leyadriel leaned over her but her sister's eyes were focused on something behind her, upon turning she found nothing there.

Elaren's lips were moving, she was mumbling something under her breath and began whimpering, tears gathering in her eyes. She stretched her arms out toward the ceiling, "_Atar......atar....."_ (mother) her arms were out, like a child begging to be held, "_Atara!"_ (mommy)

The voice came on the wind, a beautiful voice that was so familiar...

_Nai hi du na quant-lalaith_

_Nai hi ithil na quant-loth a wilwarin_

_Nai hi elenath na quant-aman laurea alph_

_Nai hi moth na quant-bale mel._

(_May it be the night is filled with laughter,_

_May it be the moon is filled with blossoms and butterflies,_

_May it be the stars are filled with blessed golden swans,_

_May it be the dusk is with deep love.)_

--flashback—

The screaming child was impossible to soothe, Leyadriel was normally such a good baby but this night she would not quiet for her father. Aragorn rocked her, he changed her, he sung to her and she would not submit.

He looked at his wife in frustration, "Help me, Arwen."

Arwen looked amused, "She's just a baby, Aragorn. You can soothe the hearts of men on the eve of a hopeless battle; can you not calm your daughter?"

"She's being difficult."

"Excuses, tsk, tsk, Estel." Arwen walked over and gently cradled her in her arms, "_Nai hi du na quant-lalaith. Nai hi ithil na quant-loth a wilwarin..."_

--end flashback—

--another flashback—

Leyadriel clamped her hands over her pointed ears, "_Atarrrr!_ Why is she so _loud?_"

"She's a baby, Leyadriel, just a little baby. Crying is the only way for her to tell us things." Arwen gathered the restless infant, "You were not so quiet in your infancy either."

"Ada always says I was a quiet baby." Leyadriel quirked an annoyed eyebrow at Elaren as the babe wailed loudly, "I certainly didn't wail like _that_."

Arwen managed to laugh, "N'uma, you did not, but elvish babies cannot wail too loudly or else they hurt their ears."

"_She's_ hurting my ears." Leyadriel pouted, "How do you make it stop?"

Arwen sat down on a divan and patted next to her, motioning Leyadriel to sit, albeit uncomfortably close to the earsplitting screams of Elaren. When Leyadriel sat Arwen placed the baby in Leyadriel's arms, watching amusedly as her daughter regarded her with shock.

"Sing to her, she likes it....just like you did."

Leyadriel's big blue eyes were pleading with her mother, "Atar I don't know any songs!"

"Nonsense! I've sung to you since your birth, you know the perfect song for her."

Though the screaming made it difficult for Leyadriel to think, she suddenly recalled a melody, as old as time she had once thought, and began rocking the babe slowly, carefully, "_Nai hi du na quant-lalaith. Nai hi ithil na quant-loth a wilwarin..."_

--end flashback—

She closed her eyes, silent tears coursing down her cheeks, her lips tracing the words of the song as if faded into the wind, leaving as unobtrusively as it came. Leyadriel sat down in the pool of blood; she was stained with so much this night, and pulled Elaren into her arms.

_I shall cradle you as tenderly the day you die._

And she did.

_To be continued..._


	61. The Rose Bush

Chapter 60- The Rose Bush

The fall had been brief, and like a cat Legolas had landed on his feet. He swayed slightly, his ribs burned, but he thought little of his own pain. Leyadriel and Elaren were alone, it would be hand to hand combat.....it would be a massacre.

He sprinted as fast as he could. He was running blindly, his legs carrying him to the guard chambers from a distant memory of Aragorn's reign....his memory led him to a wall.

Never before had his memory failed him. He could easily recall how many flowers were in bloom the day he was crowned on his fiftieth birthday and yet now, when it mattered most, he could not recall where the guards were.

Then he heard laughter, smelled ale. Ah, the Gondorian guards. They were gathered around a pitcher and he yelled them into attention. "Princess Leyadriel has great need of you. Elaren has escaped and is threatening her very life."

Though they regarded the Prince strangely a moment, they nodded gravely and ran to the Royal Chambers. Legolas sat down in pain, and hissed as he tried to remove cloth from the raw wound on his side. His back he could not reach to help or harm and it merely continued to burn.

_I wonder why they were in this room and not down the hall? Surely the guard room would not be moved just four doors down?_

A throaty chuckle came from a shadowed corner.

"Mae govannen, tarenamin." (Well met, my prince).

Legolas' ears pinned back at the nose, his eyes narrowed. His whole body grew tense, ready for the fight.

"Speak not the language of the elves in my presence, Little Lord; else I will tear your unworthy tongue from your mouth."

"Reign your anger, Prince of Fools. We have more interesting things to say then insults." Pengwaith began to walk out to Legolas but only came forward four feet from the wall when a chain on his leg made him stop.

Legolas cocked an eyebrow, "Let you out of your cage, did she?"

"Nay, the guards did. Elaren needed a cell. Since I was not being accused of a felony merely being held indefinitely, I was the one forced to relinquish my cell." Pengwaith leaned against a wall; the moon's light bathing him as Legolas took in his hated rival.

The Little Lord's skin was pallid, as if it had not seen the sun in some time. Likewise his eyes has lost the luster of daylight and looked more like eyes belonging to a night-predator. He was gaunt, ghostly and his lips were so chapped that they were peeling. His voice seemed to be suffering from disuse and his ankle was beginning to blister about his chain.

"We've no words to speak to each other, we never have. Not since the day you raped her, the day she came home hiding bruises from her family. Not since you shamed her before her father and corrupted her innocence."

A dry cackle of a laugh issued from the prisoners lips, "Even the crown does not accuse me of so much."

Legolas shook his head, "She is young, and the wisdom we once attributed to her has been stained by stress and grief to the point where it's no longer in use. She has spared you for some reason beyond my understanding, but rest assured. The hour of your death draws nearer with every breath I draw on Telcontar lands."

_Then mayhap you must die first, pretty princeling. _

Pengwaith gave a dark smile, "Surely you know the reason I was spared!"

"Nay."

He was nonchalantly cleaning a filthy fingernail when he said, "I heard tell it was born this eve."

There was a thick silence for a moment while a sick grin erupted on the elf's face. Such morbidity as this distorted the elf's beauty and made him a dark creature, almost orcish in appearance, "And died in the shame breath it was born in. A sign from above, Pengwaith, your seed dies and soon you shall. No longer shall you burden Leyadriel, no longer shall you plague her.....when the sentence is decried I shall personally deliver the blow."

Still concentrating on his fingernail, the man seemed unfazed by the prince's words, "Did I hear you correctly? The Pheidan has returned?"

Legolas would not answer, would no longer play into Pengwaith's game. He got up slowly to leave, making sure not to hiss in pain in front of Pengwaith, though the man could see the injuries.

"I am sad to hear the little bastard died." His tone was light, as if commenting on the weather. The unimportance of his child's death made it seem colder in the room, "Even if it wasn't even worth it."

This caught the elf's ear, "_What_ wasn't worth it?"

"All of it, really."

"All of what?" Legolas smelled something in the air. It reeked like Grima Wormtongue had reeked, of deception long concealed.

"The plan."

"What plan?"

"_The_ plan. Elaren takes you, I comfort the grieving princess. One way or another I take your place. I become suitor, I become lover, I become King. Leyadriel saw through it, she would not make me her husband when she conceived. It was all quite useless; after all, it didn't work."

The elf's blue eyes seemed to show his age and their deep pools clouded over with the storm of anger inside of him, "I lived on this earth for near three thousand years! I sat at the Council of Elrond, I walked among the Nine Companions, I crossed paths with a Balrog of Morgoth, I fought at the battle of Helm's Deep, I fought at Pelenor Fields. I marched to Sauron's gates beside Elessar when he was still called Aragorn!" He advanced on the man and even in all of his arrogance Pengwaith was taken aback by the waves of rage emanating from the elf, "I am part of a blood as ancient as time, a part of the people who taught the trees to talk. The mysticism in my veins is clouded in mystery to even the _eldest_ and _wisest_ of the elves! And you had the _audacity_, the shear _arrogance_, to think that some little girl with a fixation could rape me in the night and change the sway of a heart that had sworn _three thousand years_ of life, loss, and love to another? You thought elven magic so weak that it would obey the merest flick of a mortal wrist?"

Legolas backed away, disgusted, "I should have known you'd be fool enough to try to become me. You have envied me, if not me specifically then elves altogether, for as long as I have known you!"

"I _despise_ elves!"

"You flaunt your elvish blood! You take an elvish name! You take an elf maid's innocence! You try to take an elvish crown? You even dare attempt to utter the delicate tongue of the Ancient Ones." Legolas spat on the ground, "You have envied the Eldar, the only Eldar you in your brief time have known. Leyadriel and myself."

Disgust rivaled anger for dominance in the Prince's eyes but shock took over as Pengwaith, with red-hot tears running down his cheeks, threw his hands about Legolas' neck and attempted to choke out his life. Legolas threw the man back into the hard wall and stalked up to him, picked up the chain, and heaving with his elven strength pulled the chain from the wall fastening as if it were a child's toy.

Legolas then went up to the man and backhanded his cheek, "Long have I desired to see you fall, you're a schemer, a trickster! You once were nobility; let us end this like nobles."

Pengwaith seemed to nod but quickly shattered all illusions of a gentlemanly fight by hitting the wound on Legolas' rib full force. As the Prince doubled over in pain, Pengwaith elbowed the second wound on his back.

Wiping the blood off of his flesh he muttered, "First blood to me."

Legolas was still regaining from the blows, the agony that ripped through him and threatened to tear him in half distracted him from the fight and allowed Pengwaith to land several more blows.

That was when the Prince tired of the game he had begun.

Using his speed to dodge a blow he grabbed the back of Pengwaith's neck and threw him once more into the wall. He grabbed the man's throat and pressed hard.

Pengwaith struggled. He bit and clawed and kicked.

You could almost hear what he was thinking.

_They are stronger; I never thought they were actually stronger. _

_Need air.........need air! Breathe! _

_Strong... very strong...air...need..._

His pulse was pounding against the elf's hand. Ba-bum. Ba-bum..Ba-bum...Ba-bum.

_His life flashed before his eyes and he saw nothing worth the living of it. He saw woman come and go and all would kick as soon as kiss him. He saw men who waited until his back was turned to feign throwing daggers at him. He saw the tears in the eyes of Leyadriel when he hurt her..._

_She was pregnant, she was going to have his child. Had he been smart he would've truly changed, would've made that transition real instead of an act for Leyadriel's benefit._

Ba-bum......ba-bum......

_Her stomach was so big. He would see glimpses of her sometimes, every time she was bigger. _

_He never felt it move. Never saw it. He should've been there when it was born...what was it anyway? A little girl? A little boy?_

_Did it even have a name?_

Ba-bum....

_It was half his and he never knew it. He should've known it. Wished he had seen it. He regretted it had died......he wished it had lived._

_He wondered if the child's heart beat as his did. He could almost hear it throbbing in his ears._

_Ba-bum......ba-bum............ba-....................._

--- ---

Two Weeks Later

--- ---

The setting sun lit up the dark red hue of Leyadriel's dress until it glowed like a contained flame. Her hair was flowing past her shoulders and pooling in her lap as she sat on the bench in the garden. On her brow Galadriel's crown seemed to glow.

At long last, there was a Lady of Light reigning in Middle Earth again.

But began her reign too late.

She knew this in her heart. Her whole life has been preparing for this role and she had failed it. Did this mean her life was without purpose? No, it meant she had found a different purpose.

All her life she had been forced to grow up young, and had not realized that she was still very much a foolish child until very recently.

A white rose bush, that had been there as long as the scar on her face and even longer, stood watching her. It had been watching her for her whole life. Ever silent, never passing judgment as it watched but merely watched.

A white snout with a gray circle on it sniffed a rose and made to nibble it but another white snout pushed it away and snorted at it. Isilme looked at her mother and flicked her tail irritably but before Du-amrun could respond a whinny sounded and Isilme trotted happy over to her father. Legolas smoothly dismounted from Arod's back and petted his neck, whispering to him and the young filly before coming face to face with Leyadriel. She patted the seat next to her and he joined her, putting a hand over her own and following her gaze as it settled back on the roses.

The pink rose bush that Aragorn had planted for her had grown equal in size since she had last seen it but it was not upon either plant's beauty that she fixed her gaze. Her eyes fluttered past the pretty flowers to a mithril plate in the ground.

_Here lies a much beloved son, the last drop of Elvendom in this Middle Earth and the first grandchild of King Elessar. Methion Telcontar, who's only breath meant more then a lifetime of words._

There were two other mithril plaques in the Telcontar family plot of land. One with Elaren's name inscribed with pretty decorations. She was on Aragorn's left side and on his right was this:

_This marks the life of Leyadriel Telcontar, first daughter of King Elessar and Arwen Undomiel. Her heart lies here; her body still lives with the last of her mother's blood. Never will she forget this Middle Earth, and prays her kin, in turn, are not forgotten. _

Legolas did not see this deeply into her thoughts, he merely sat beside her, giving her the privacy in her head that she had grown into these past few weeks. Leyadriel looked up, deciding she was done with funeral plaques, and saw Isilme galloping full pace in circles about her parents. They galloped and reared and nipped at her, their play made Leyadriel smile.

"Do you think she'll be calm enough of this ship? I'd hate for her to hurt herself."

Legolas regarded the family of horses and smiled, "It would depend on how soon we leave."

Leyadriel's eyes strayed back to the plaque that marked her son's grave. "Soon. This Earth holds little for me, certainly nothing that needs me here. We should go and make our own life, our own home, begin our own family. The time of waiting has come and gone for us, let us finally let eternity begin."

"This is not because of the dreams?"

Leyadriel's nightmares had grown worse and in her sleep now she was plagued by whispers and shadows. In her ears a baby cry kept sounding and in the back of the crowd of Orcs she would swear there was a small, faired haired child begging her big sister to play hide and seek.

The orcs had not left her like all her other demons, they were as potent as ever and relished that power. She had gotten little sleep in these past few months and it seemed that they weighed upon her as if they were years.

She rested a tired head on his shoulder, as always, he understood and he kissed her forehead, "You will want to say good-bye to your family?"

"Of course."

"Will you wait for your nephew to be born?"

"En rant." (Of course.)

--- ---

_By the end of the year the kingdom was overjoyed with the arrival of the New Queen's first son. Eldarion was the picture of a proud father, proclaiming his son to be Arathaine. Leyadriel was there, giving her sister-in-law all the glory of this day, though the young prince's birth was not the only news of import that day. As Leyadriel held her little nephew and cooed at him she looked up at his father, who had a loving arm around the tired, young mother._

"_The circle has completed itself. The patterns begin again. Our father's new beginning came with your birth; yours should come with your son's."_

"_What do you mean, Leyadriel? These past few months your wit has returned and I'm afraid I'm not the man to solve your riddles."_

"_Legolas and I are leaving, brother."_

"_So you've been saying."_

"_We are riding to the havens at dawn."_

"_Dawn?" Eldarion looked confused, "But why?"_

"_The time of the elves has long since passed. There is no use in my staying here without a people to rule."_

"_You are a sister before a Queen, Leyadriel."_

"_And I have been a burden enough these past few years. You have a new family, and now I need to have one of my own. My love for this family will never die, never diminish. That is the beauty of Valinor: it shall remain ever green long after you're gone."_

_Leyadriel might have caused them all heart ache this year, but she was still their sister and when she went to the room of each sibling to say good-bye it was met with tears and pleas for her remain. Every sibling she warmly embraced and kissed and wished the best of luck. She engraved every hair and every head into her memory._

_She loved them all. Every one of them. And if she was the only one who knew who left a white rose on Elaren's bed, all the better. _

_At dawn the two hooded figures left for the Gray Havens, this time together. They were never again to be seen on Middle Earth though they were often thought of by Leyadriel's family. Indeed tales of the pair were told by Arathaine to his children, and his grandchildren. _

_The tales faded, the truth in the web of fiction became less clear and eventually they were little more then a bedtime story. The elves were forgotten, known as legend as dismissed as quickly. _

_But this did not trouble the Eldar, they had there own way of forgetting man. Spare for the few who knew their bloodlines were in the soil of Middle Earth. _

_They remembered, even as they were forgotten. In their minds never a single hair grayed on the faces of their loved ones and Arathaine, the Elder King, who ruled well into his 150th year, in the tradition of his grandfather's blood, never grew past the red crying newborn wriggling in his aunt's arms. _

_And the rose bushes in the garden, long since dead, never lost their perfect blooms._

_**Next: The Epilogue**_

A/N- Tolkien does not, to my knowledge, go into Eldarion's son so I just made that up. There is one chapter left. An epilogue, a little scene that absolutely has to be put in or else I will kill myself.

By the way, if one of you would be so kind as to get a web page for me (because I have tried to run one and failed miserably) I would LOVE to display fan art. Not just the stuff done by my illustrator but by you guys! If you'd like that. If not then oh well.

REVIEW Please.


	62. Epilogue: The Daughter of Telcontar

**Epilogue- The Daughter of Telcontar**

More then a year had passed since Legolas Thranduilion left the shores of Valinor to search out his love on Middle Earth. And not a single day passed that those closest to the couple watched the shore, hoping for a boat. Since Galadriel's Mirror was no more, the Lady of Light could not tell them any more then they knew. She even kept her own inklings to herself.

One morn, Celeborn found himself alone in bed. He was much amused, and equally baffled, that his wife would sneak out of bed without waking him. Upon searching for her, he found their home empty. Finally, he came across her, standing by the waters edge, the sea breeze blowing her hair away from her face.

"Why are you out here, my love?" He asked

"Wait and see." She said, with a secretive smile.

And he did. For hours the pair of them were unmoving, until at last, on the horizon, a tiny speck began to grow larger.

A boat drew near.

Soon a crowd gathered and waited with infinite patience as the boat made its way to shore. When at long last it landed, they watched with baited breath for what would emerge.

Servants came and let down a ramp before going back up to collect various things to bring to shore. The elegant gray ship was the same one that had raced away from these shores and none was more anxious then King Thranduil to see if his youngest child was still its captain.

The quiet of the air was broken by a sharp whinny and the sound of a horse galloping across wood. Then a pure white yearling sprinted down the ramp and began rearing and neighing in excitement that she was finally on land. Two horses followed her, a striking white stallion and a white mare with a black mane and tail. The parents seemed to shake their heads at their offspring as if to apologize for her behavior, though at the same time they seemed to be smiling. Isilme was not the only one to whinny happy at finally having dry land beneath her hooves again.

Suddenly Du-amrun nipped Isilme's flanks and stamped her foot, telling her to calm down and the yearling obeyed though she continued to toss her head.

That was when a pair of elves began to walk toward the ramp. They were dressed in a white-green fabric with golden leaves winding around their bodies. Legolas was escorting Leyadriel down properly, holding one of her hands in his while she carried herself elegantly, gracefully.

When they reached the bottom Legolas bowed and Leyadriel fell into a deep curtsey.

Galadriel bowed her head to them, "Mae govannen, Taren Legolas, Hiril Leyadriel." (Well met Prince Legolas and Queen Leyadriel.)

"_Tarien_ Leyadriel. The title of Lady of the Light shall ever be yours, great-grandmother." Leyadriel bowed her head and gave a small smile while Galadriel met with a wide one.

"Welcome nonetheless. Long have we waited for you, my daughter, and long have we wondered if you were to come at all."

"I am here now, so shall I remain."

Galadriel stepped up to her and cupped her cheek, "You look rested, my young one."

"We are in a land where the dead do not dwell, they do not plague my dreams here."

Thranduil approached his son and met him in a tight embrace before turning on Leyadriel, "Long have I waited to hold you and call you my newest daughter, Leyadriel Telcontar."

"A but that title does not belong to me." Leyadriel's smile was mischievous as she pulled back the fold to her sleeve, revealing a white babe, fast asleep in the crook of its mother's arms. Its cheeks were pink, and there was a tuft of dark curls on its head. One pudgy arm was on top of its blankets and there were two perfectly formed pointed ears.

Legolas put an arm around his bride and opened his arm to the gathered crowd, "Might I introduce, Elmirwen. Our daughter."

A new princess, a new hope.

A new daughter of Telcontar.

_**The End**_

_Author's Note: OMG!!!! It's OVER!!!! –crying—I love that ending. I have a picture of it drawn by the ever popular Grace. Some of you have seen it, theres a big yellow box that says CONFIDENTIAL because its covering little Elmirwen._

_To answer your questions: NO! There will NOT EVER be a sequel. Sorry guys, its, in my opinion, perfect the way it is. _

_Point of Debate: I am seriously considering revising this fic, editing it very much and making it more.........Tolkien and less sappy Legomance. Unless we like the sappy legomance.Otherwise you can start reading other fics because I will start updating (maybe not right away this is sort of tiring and tramatic)_

_ALSO: If you saw the USA Original Movie Frankenstein: WRITE SOME FANFICTION FOR IT ALREADY!!!! I'm dying here! _

_THANK YOU GUYS SO MUCH FOR YOUR SUPPORT!!! I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!_

_Blue Eyes At Night_


	63. The Converted Story Begins!

Hello Loyal Readers

As promised long ago, I have been working on converting our beloved Daughter of Telcontar into a real fantasy currently going by The Scion of Lennox.

I have posted it on in its current (extremely rough form) and IT WILL ONLY BE POSTED UNTIL JANUARY 15, 2009

Why? Because I'm paranoid about it being taken. So please, you have until then to read the first 13 pages and tell me what you think about how the conversion is going, if you like the changes, etc. This is a VERY ROUGH version, this has been done over the last two days.

Below is the link. Please help me out! (fill in fictionpress before the .com)

.com/s/2615283/1/The_Scion_of_Lennox

Cheers readers!


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